Partial classification of spectrum maximizing products for pairs of 2 × 2 matrices

Experiments suggest that typical finite sets of square matrices admit spectrum maximizing products (SMPs): that is, products that attain the joint spectral radius (JSR). Furthermore, those SMPs are often combinatorially “simple.” In this paper, we consider pairs of real $2\times 2$ matrices. We identify regions in the space of such pairs where SMPs are guaranteed to exist and to have a simple structure. We also identify another region where SMPs may fail to exist (in fact, this region includes all known counterexamples to the finiteness conjecture), but nevertheless a Sturmian maximizing measure exists. Though our results apply to a large chunk of the space of pairs of $2\times 2$ matrices, including for instance all pairs of non-negative matrices, they leave out certain “wild” regions where more complicated behavior is possible.