Finiteness property of pairs of 2x2 sign-matrices via real extremal polytope norms

This paper deals with the joint spectral radius of a finite set of matrices. We say that a set of matrices has the finiteness property if the maximal rate of growth, in the multiplicative semigroup it generates, is given by the powers of a finite product. Here we address the problem of establishing the finiteness property of pairs of 2 × 2 sign-matrices. Such problem is related to the conjecture that pairs of sign-matrices fulfil the finiteness property for any dimension. This would imply, by a recent result by Blondel and Jungers, that finite sets of rational matrices fulfil the finiteness property, which would be very important in terms of the computation of the joint spectral radius. The technique used in this paper could suggest an extension of the analysis to n × n sign-matrices, which still remains an open problem. As a main tool of our proof we make use of a procedure to find a so-called real extremal polytope norm for the set. In particular, we present an algorithm which, under some suitable assumptions, is able to check if a certain product in the multiplicative semigroup is spectrum maximizing. For pairs of sign-matrices we develop the computations exactly and hence are able to prove analytically the finiteness property. On the other hand, the algorithm can be used in a floating point arithmetic and provide a general tool for approximating the joint spectral radius of a set of matrices.