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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
We introduce the $\textbf{h}$-minimum spanning length of a family
${\mathcal A}$ of
$n\times n$ matrices over a field
$\mathbb F$, where
$\textbf{h}$ is a p-tuple of positive integers, each no more than n. For an algebraically closed field
$\mathbb F$, Burnside’s theorem on irreducibility is essentially that the
$(n,n,\ldots ,n)$-minimum spanning length of
${\mathcal A}$ exists if
${\mathcal A}$ is irreducible. We show that the
$\textbf{h}$-minimum spanning length of
${\mathcal A}$ exists for every
$\textbf{h}=(h_1,h_2,\ldots , h_p)$ if
${\mathcal A}$ is an irreducible family of invertible matrices with at least three elements. The
$(1,1, \ldots ,1)$-minimum spanning length is at most
$4n\log _{2} 2n+8n-3$. Several examples are given, including one giving a complete calculation of the
$(p,q)$-minimum spanning length of the ordered pair
$(J^*,J)$, where J is the Jordan matrix.