Algebraic eigenspaces of nonnegative matrices

The Perron-Frobenius theory for square, irreducible, nonnegative matrices is generalized by studying the structure of the algebraic eigenspace of an arbitrary square nonnegative matrix corresponding to its spectral radius. We give a constructive proof that this subspace is spanned by a set of semipositive vectors and give a combinatorial characterization of both the index of the spectral radius and dimension of the algebraic eigenspace corresponding to the spectral radius. This involves a detailed study of the standard block triangular representation of nonnegative matrices by giving special attention to those blocks on the diagonal having the same spectral radius as the original matrix. We also show that the algebraic eigenspace corresponding to the spectral radius contains a semipositive vector having the largest set of positive coordinates among all vectors in this subspace.