On Bounded Matrices with Non-Negative Elements

It is known (Perron (10); Frobenius (5, 6)) that if A = ( a ik ) is a finite matrix with elements a ik ⩾ 0, then A has a real, nonnegative eigenvalue μ, satisfying μ =max|λ| where λ is in the spectrum of A , with a corresponding eigenvector x = ( x 1 , … , x n ) for which x i ≥ 0. Moreover if a ik > 0, then μ is a simple point of the spectrum with an eigenvector x (unique, except for constant multiples) with components x i ≥0. Much has been written on this and related issues; cf., for example, the recent papers (4, 12) wherein are given several references.