Primitivity and Local Primitivity of Digraphs and Nonnegative Matrices

Resumo

The article surveys the main results on the primitivity and local primitivity of digraphs and matrices from the inception of this research area in 1912 by now. We review the universal and special criteria for primitivity and local primitivity as well as universal and special bounds on the exponents and local exponents of digraphs and matrices. We describe some cryptographic applications of this mathematical apparatus for analyzing the mixing properties of block ciphers and keystream generators. The new promising research directions are formulated in the study of primitivity and local primitivity of digraphs and matrices.