PRIME MATRICES – SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES WITH PRIME NUMBERS

Abstract

Based on existing knowledge about prime numbers in the set of natural numbers and square matrices, the article clarifies the concept of prime matrices (according to Rivett & Mackinnon, 1986). The article also prove in detail that there are only two prime matrices in the set M of 2×2 matrices with entries in the non-negative integers and with determinant 1 and any member of M (except identity matrix I) can be uniquely factorised into a product of those prime matrices. The article also proposes a method to factorise a matrix (2×2) matrix with entries in the non-negative integers and with determinant 1) into a product of those prime matrices and presents specific illustrative examples