Mortality in Matrix Semigroups

We present a new shorter and simplified proof for the undecidability of the mortality problem in matrix semigroups, originally proved by Paterson in 1970. We use the clever coding technique introduced by Paterson to achieve also a new result, the undecidability of the vanishing (left) upper corner. Since our proof for the undecidability of the mortality problem uses only 8 matrices, a new bound for the dimension for the undecidability of the mortality in the two generator matrix semigroup is achieved.