Atoms in the Semigroup of Non-Negative Integer Matrices

Abstract

In the semigroup $M_2(\mathbb{N}_0)^\bullet$, two-by-two matrices with non-negative integer entries and non-zero determinant, we study the factorization of matrices into atoms, or irreducible matrices. In 2022, Baeth et al. listed some fundamental classes of atoms in $M_2(\mathbb{N}_0)^\bullet$; however, the factorability of most matrices in $M_2(\mathbb{N}_0)^\bullet$ remains unknown. We identify two additional classes of atoms: a class of atoms with determinant $p$, $2p$, or $4p$, for $p$ prime, and a class of atoms in which the main diagonal is much "larger" than the off-diagonal (or vice versa). Finally, we show that bisymmetric matrices with relatively prime entries are a divisor-closed subset of $M_2(\mathbb{N}_0)^\bullet$ and use a factor search algorithm to classify bisymmetric atoms of $M_2(\mathbb{N}_0)^\bullet$ with minimum entry up to 4000.