Matrix semigroups with constant spectral radius

Abstract: Multiplicative matrix semigroups with constant spectral radius (c.s.r.) are studied and applied to several problems of algebra, combinatorics, functional equations, and dynamical systems. We show that all such semigroups are characterized by means of irreducible ones. Each irreducible c.s.r. semigroup defines walks on Euclidean sphere, all its nonsingular elements are similar (in the same basis) to orthogonal. We classify all nonnegative c.s.r. semigroups and arbitrary low-dimensional semigroups. For higher dimensions, we describe five classes and leave an open problem on completeness of that list. The problem of algorithmic recognition of c.s.r. property is proved to be polynomially solvable for irreducible semigroups and undecidable for reducible ones.