A rank characterization of the number of final classes of a nonnegative matrix

Let A be a nonnegative square matrix, and let D be a diagonal matrix whose iith element is $\text{(Ax)}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{x}{}_{\mathrm{i}}$, where x is a (fixed) positive vector. It is shown that the number of final classes of A equals n?rank(A?D). We also show that null(A?D) = null(A?D)², and that this subspace is spanned by a set of nonnegative elements. Our proof uses a characterization of nonnegative matrices having a positive eigenvector corresponding to their spectral radius.