Effectively bounded idempotent generation of certain $2 \times 2$ singular matrices by idempotent matrices over real quadratic number rings

Abstract

Let $k = \mathbb{Q}(\sqrtα)$ be a real quadratic number field, where $α$ is a positive square-free integer. Let $\mathcal{O}_k$ be the ring of integers of $k$. In this paper, we prove that a certain set of $2 \times 2$ singular matrices with entries in $\mathcal{O}_k$ can be written as a product of a bounded number of idempotent matrices. Our main theorem can be viewed as a generalization of the recent result by Cossu and Zanardo, which studies finite generation of certain singular matrices by idempotent matrices over $\mathcal{O}_k$ instead of bounded generation of certain singular matrices by idempotent matrices over $\mathcal{O}_k$ as considered in this paper.