We consider the following variant of the Mortality Problem: given k x k matrices A_1, A_2, ...,A_{t}, does there exist nonnegative integers m_1, m_2, ...,m_t such that the product A_1^{m_1} A_2^{m_2} * ... * A_{t}^{m_{t}} is equal to the zero matrix? It is known that this problem is decidable when t <= 2 for matrices over algebraic numbers but becomes undecidable for sufficiently large t and k even for integral matrices. In this paper, we prove the first decidability results for t>2. We show as one of our central results that for t=3 this problem in any dimension is Turing equivalent to the well-known Skolem problem for linear recurrence sequences. Our proof relies on the Primary Decomposition Theorem for matrices that was not used to show decidability results in matrix semigroups before. As a corollary we obtain that the above problem is decidable for t=3 and k <= 3 for matrices over algebraic numbers and for t=3 and k=4 for matrices over real algebraic numbers. Another consequence is that the set of triples (m_1,m_2,m_3) for which the equation A_1^{m_1} A_2^{m_2} A_3^{m_3} equals the zero matrix is equal to a finite union of direct products of semilinear sets. For t=4 we show that the solution set can be non-semilinear, and thus it seems unlikely that there is a direct connection to the Skolem problem. However we prove that the problem is still decidable for upper-triangular 2 x 2 rational matrices by employing powerful tools from transcendence theory such as Baker’s theorem and S-unit equations.
@InProceedings{bell_et_al:LIPIcs.MFCS.2019.83, author = {Bell, Paul C. and Potapov, Igor and Semukhin, Pavel}, title = {{On the Mortality Problem: From Multiplicative Matrix Equations to Linear Recurrence Sequences and Beyond}}, booktitle = {44th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2019)}, pages = {83:1--83:15}, series = {Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)}, ISBN = {978-3-95977-117-7}, ISSN = {1868-8969}, year = {2019}, volume = {138}, editor = {Rossmanith, Peter and Heggernes, Pinar and Katoen, Joost-Pieter}, publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik}, address = {Dagstuhl, Germany}, URL = {https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2019.83}, URN = {urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-110279}, doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2019.83}, annote = {Keywords: Linear recurrence sequences, Skolem’s problem, mortality problem, matrix equations, primary decomposition theorem, Baker’s theorem} }
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