Sign patterns allowing nilpotence of index 3

Suppose P is a property referring to a real matrix. We say that a sign pattern A allows P if there exists at least one matrix with the same sign pattern as A that has the property P. In this paper, we study sign patterns allowing nilpotence of index 3. Four methods for constructing sign patterns that allow nilpotence of index 3 are obtained. All tree sign patterns that allow nilpotence of index 3 are characterized. Sign patterns of order 3 that allow nilpotence are identified.