In this note, we generalize the technique developed in [13] and prove that every 5xn matrix of tropical rank at most 3 has Kapranov rank at most 3, for the ground field that contains at least 4 elements. For the ground field either F_2 or F_3, we construct an example of a 5x5 matrix with tropical rank 3 and Kapranov rank 4.
We show that determining Kapranov rank of tropical matrices is not only NP-hard over any infinite field but also if solving Diophantine equations over the rational numbers is undecidable, then determining Kapranov rank over the rational numbers is undecidable. We prove that Kapranov rank of tropical matrices is not bounded in terms of tropical rank, answering a question of Develin, Santos, and Sturmfels.
We provide an example of a 6-by-6 matrix with tropical rank equal to 4 and Kapranov rank equal to 5. This answers a question asked by M. Chan, A. Jensen, and E. Rubei.
This paper proves the $r \times r$ minors of an $n \times n$ symmetric matrix of indeterminates are a tropical basis when $r = 2$, $r = 3$, or $r = n$, and are not when $4 < r < n$ or $r = 4, n > 12$. In the process, it introduces two new notions of rank for symmetric matrices coming from tropical geometry, the symmetric tropical and the symmetric Kapranov rank, which are the symmetric versions of their standard counterparts defined by Develin, Santos, and Sturmfels.
We compute the space of 5x5 matrices of tropical rank at most 3 and show that it coincides with the space of 5x5 matrices of Kapranov rank at most 3, that is, the space of five labeled coplanar points in TP4. We then prove that the Kapranov rank of every 5xn matrix equals its tropical rank; equivalently, that the 4x4 minors of a 5xn matrix of variables form a tropical basis. This answers a question asked by Develin, Santos, and Sturmfels.
We continue to study the rank functions of tropical matrices. In this paper, we explain how to reduce the computation of ranks for matrices over the `supertropical semifield' to the standard tropical case. Using a counting approach, we prove the existence of a $01$-matrix with many ones and without large all-one submatrices, and we put our results together and construct an $n\times n$ matrix with tropical rank $o(n^{0.5+\varepsilon})$ and Kapranov rank $n-o(n)$.
We introduce and study three different notions of tropical rank for symmetric and dissimilarity matrices in terms of minimal decompositions into rank 1 symmetric matrices, star tree matrices, and tree matrices. Our results provide a close study of the tropical secant sets of certain nice tropical varieties, including the tropical Grassmannian. In particular, we determine the dimension of each secant set, the convex hull of the variety, and in most cases, the smallest secant set which is equal to the convex hull.
This is a foundational paper in tropical linear algebra, which is linear algebra over the min-plus semiring. We introduce and compare three natural definitions of the rank of a matrix, called the Barvinok rank, the Kapranov rank and the tropical rank. We demonstrate how these notions arise naturally in polyhedral and algebraic geometry, and we show that they differ in general. Realizability of matroids plays a crucial role here. Connections to optimization are also discussed.
These lecture notes are based on lectures given by the author at the summer school "Arrangements in Pyrénées" in June 2012. We survey and compare various compactifications of complex hyperplane arrangement complements. In particular, we review the Gel'fand-MacPherson construction, Kapranov's visible contours compactification, and De Concini and Procesi's wonderful compactification. We explain how these constructions are unified by some ideas from the modern origins of tropical geometry. The paper contains a few new arguments intended to make the presentation as self-contained as possible.
The paper gives a complete description of the subgroups of the semigroup of tropical n-by-n matrices up to an isomorphism. In particular, we show that every of these groups has a torsion-free abelian subgroup of index at most n!, proving the conjecture of Johnson and Kambites.
Let D(m,n) be the set of all the integer points in the m-dilate of the Birkhoff polytope of doubly-stochastic n by n matrices. In this paper we find the sharp upper bound on the tropical determinant over the set D(m,n). We define a version of the tropical determinant where the maximum over all the transversals in a matrix is replaced with the minimum and then find the sharp lower bound on thus defined tropical determinant over D(m,n).
We study the tropicalization of the cone of positive semidefinite matrices over the ordered field of real Puiseux series. The tropical PSD matrices form the normal cone of the Newton polytope of the symmetric determinant at the vertex corresponding to the product of diagonal entries. We find generators and defining inequalities of the cone. The PSD tropical quadratic forms are those that induce the trivial subdivision on the standard simplex dilated by two. We also show that the tropical PSD cone is the tropical convex hull of the set of symmetric matrices of tropical rank one and that every t…
Matrix factorization problems over various semirings naturally arise in different contexts of modern pure and applied mathematics. These problems are very hard in general and cause computational difficulties in applications. We give a survey of what is known on the algorithmic complexity of Boolean, fuzzy, tropical, nonnegative, and positive semidefinite factorizations, and we examine the behavior of the corresponding rank functions on matrices of bounded bandwidth. We show that the Boolean, fuzzy, and tropical versions of matrix factorization become polynomial time solvable when restricted to…
A tropical matrix is a matrix defined over the max-plus semiring. For such matrices, there exist several non-coinciding notions of rank: the row rank, the column rank, the Schein/Barvinok rank, the Kapranov rank, or the tropical rank, among others. In the present paper, we show that there exists a natural notion of ultimate rank for the powers of a tropical matrix, which does not depend on the underlying notion of rank. Furthermore, we provide a simple formula for the ultimate rank of a matrix which can therefore be computed in polynomial time. Then we turn our attention to finitely generated …
The space T_{d,n} of n tropically collinear points in a fixed tropical projective space TP^{d-1} is equivalent to the tropicalization of the determinantal variety of matrices of rank at most 2, which consists of real d x n matrices of tropical or Kapranov rank at most 2, modulo projective equivalence of columns. We show that it is equal to the image of the moduli space M_{0,n}(TP^{d-1},1) of n-marked tropical lines in TP^{d-1} under the evaluation map. Thus we derive a natural simplicial fan structure for T_{d,n} using a simplicial fan structure of M_{0,n}(TP^{d-1},1) which coincides with that…
We prove the conjecture that, for any $n$, the monoid of all $n \times n$ tropical matrices satisfies nontrivial semigroup identities. To this end, we prove that the factor rank of a large enough power of a tropical matrix does not exceed the tropical rank of the original matrix.
Connection matrices for graph parameters with values in a field have been introduced by M. Freedman, L. Lov{á}sz and A. Schrijver (2007). Graph parameters with connection matrices of finite rank can be computed in polynomial time on graph classes of bounded tree-width. We introduce join matrices, a generalization of connection matrices, and allow graph parameters to take values in the tropical rings (max-plus algebras) over the real numbers. We show that rank-finiteness of join matrices implies that these graph parameters can be computed in polynomial time on graph classes of bounded clique-wi…
We investigate the tropical analogues of totally positive and totally nonnegative matrices. These arise when considering the images by the nonarchimedean valuation of the corresponding classes of matrices over a real nonarchimedean valued field, like the field of real Puiseux series. We show that the nonarchimedean valuation sends the totally positive matrices precisely to the Monge matrices. This leads to explicit polyhedral representations of the tropical analogues of totally positive and totally nonnegative matrices. We also show that tropical totally nonnegative matrices with a finite perm…
This paper investigates the geometric properties of a special case of the two-sided system given by $2 \times 2$ tropical commuting constraints. Given a finite matrix $A \in \mathbb{R}^{2\times 2}$, the paper studies the extremals of the tropical polyhedral cone generated by the entries of matrices $B$ such that $A \otimes B = B \otimes A$ and proposes a criterion to test whether two $2\times 2$ matrices commute in max linear algebra.
The tropical semiring (R, min, +) has enjoyed a recent renaissance, owing to its connections to mathematical biology as well as optimization and algebraic geometry. In this paper, we investigate the space of labeled n-point configurations lying on a tropical line in d-space, which is interpretable as the space of n-species phylogenetic trees. This is equivalent to the space of d by n matrices of tropical rank two, a simplicial complex. We prove that this simplicial complex is shellable for dimension d=3 and compute its homology in this case, conjecturing that this complex is shellable in gener…
Let $A$ be a real matrix. The term rank of $A$ is the smallest number $t$ of lines (that is, rows or columns) needed to cover all the nonzero entries of $A$. We prove a conjecture of Li et al. stating that, if the rank of $A$ exceeds $t-3$, there is a rational matrix with the same sign pattern and rank as those of $A$. We point out a connection of the problem discussed with the Kapranov rank function of tropical matrices, and we show that the statement fails to hold in general if the rank of $A$ does not exceed $t-3$.
We study tropical commuting matrices from two viewpoints: linear algebra and algebraic geometry. In classical linear algebra, there exist various criteria to test whether two square matrices commute. We ask for similar criteria in the realm of tropical linear algebra, giving conditions for two tropical matrices that are polytropes to commute. From the algebro-geometric perspective, we explicitly compute the tropicalization of the classical variety of commuting matrices in dimension 2 and 3.
We initiate the study of positive-tropical generators as positive analogues of the concept of tropical bases. Applying this to the tropicalization of determinantal varieties, we develop criteria for characterizing their positive part. We focus on the study of low-rank matrices, in particular matrices of rank 2 and 3. Moreover, in the case square-matrices of corank 1, we fully classify the signed tropicalization of the determinantal variety, even beyond the positive part.
The tropical arithmetic operations on $\mathbb{R}$ are defined by $a\oplus b=\min\{a,b\}$ and $a\otimes b=a+b$. Let $A$ be a tropical matrix and $k$ a positive integer, the problem of Tropical Matrix Factorization (TMF) asks whether there exist tropical matrices $B\in\mathbb{R}^{m\times k}$ and $C\in\mathbb{R}^{k\times n}$ satisfying $B\otimes C=A$. We show that no algorithm for TMF is likely to work in polynomial time for every fixed $k$, thus resolving a problem proposed by Barvinok in 1993.
This paper uses the combinatorics of Young tableaux to prove the plactic monoid of infinite rank does not satisfy a non-trivial identity, by showing that the plactic monoid of rank $n$ cannot satisfy a non-trivial identity of length less than or equal to $n$. A new identity is then proven to hold for the monoid of $n \times n$ upper-triangular tropical matrices. Finally, a straightforward embedding is exhibited of the plactic monoid of rank $3$ into the direct product of two copies of the monoid of $3\times 3$ upper-triangular tropical matrices, giving a new proof that the plactic monoid of ra…
We study the transients of matrices in max-plus algebra. Our approach is based on the weak CSR expansion. Using this expansion, the transient can be expressed by $\max\{T_1,T_2\}$, where $T_1$ is the weak CSR threshold and $T_2$ is the time after which the purely pseudoperiodic CSR terms start to dominate in the expansion. Various bounds have been derived for $T_1$ and $T_2$, naturally leading to the question which matrices, if any, attain these bounds. In the present paper we characterize the matrices attaining two particular bounds on $T_1$, which are generalizations of the bounds of Wieland…
We show that for all k = 1,...,n the absolute value of the product of the k largest eigenvalues of an n-by-n matrix A is bounded from above by the product of the k largest tropical eigenvalues of the matrix |A| (entrywise absolute value), up to a combinatorial constant depending only on k and on the pattern of the matrix. This generalizes an inequality by Friedland (1986), corresponding to the special case k = 1.
We prove identities on compound matrices in extended tropical semirings. Such identities include analogues to properties of conjugate matrices, powers of matrices and~$\adj(A)\det(A)^{ -1}$, all of which have implications on the eigenvalues of the corresponding matrices. A tropical Sylvester-Franke identity is provided as well.
In this paper we further develop the theory of matrices over the extended tropical semiring. Introducing a notion of tropical linear dependence allows for a natural definition of matrix rank in a sense that coincides with the notions of tropical regularity and invertibility.
This paper introduces a new structure of commutative semiring, generalizing the tropical semiring, and having an arithmetic that modifies the standard tropical operations, i.e. summation and maximum. Although our framework is combinatorial, notions of regularity and invertibility arise naturally for matrices over this semiring; we show that a tropical matrix is invertible if and only if it is regular.
We investigate different notions of linear independence and of matrix rank that are relevant for max-plus or tropical semirings. The factor rank and tropical rank have already received attention, we compare them with the ranks defined in terms of signed tropical determinants or arising from a notion of linear independence introduced by Gondran and Minoux. To do this, we revisit the symmetrization of the max-plus algebra, establishing properties of linear spaces, linear systems, and matrices over the symmetrized max-plus algebra. In parallel we develop some general technique to prove combinator…
We exhibit a faithful representation of the plactic monoid of every finite rank as a monoid of upper triangular matrices over the tropical semiring. This answers a question first posed by Izhakian and subsequently studied by several authors. A consequence is a proof of a conjecture of Kubat and Okniński that every plactic monoid of finite rank satisfies a non-trivial semigroup identity. In the converse direction, we show that every identity satisfied by the plactic monoid of rank $n$ is satisfied by the monoid of $n \times n$ upper triangular tropical matrices. In particular this implies that …
The map which takes a square matrix to its tropical eigenvalue-eigenvector pair is piecewise linear. We determine the cones of linearity of this map. They are simplicial but they do not form a fan. Motivated by statistical ranking, we also study the restriction of that cone decomposition to the subspace of skew-symmetric matrices.
A transversal matroid $M$ of rank $r$ on $[n]$ can be associated to a family of binary matrices corresponding to different presentations of $M$. We describe those matrices which arise from unique maximal presentations of size $r$- giving a complete characterization when $r=2$-, give an algorithm for producing such a matrix, and show that determining whether a matrix corresponds to a maximal presentation is related to determining the tropical rank of arbitrary matrices.
We show that every tropical totally positive matrix can be uniquely represented as the transfer matrix of a canonical totally connected weighted planar network. We deduce a uniqueness theorem for the factorization of a tropical totally positive in terms of elementary Jacobi matrices.
We continue the study of matrices over a supertropical algebra, proving the existence of a tangible adjoint of $A$, which provides the unique right (resp. left) quasi-inverse maximal with respect to the right (resp. left) quasi-identity matrix corresponding to $A$; this provides a unique maximal (tangible) solution to supertropical vector equations, via a version of Cramer's rule. We also describe various properties of this tangible adjoint, and use it to compute supertropical eigenvectors, thereby producing an example in which an $n\times n$ matrix has $n$ distinct supertropical eigenvalues b…
We exhibit a faithful representation of the stylic monoid of every finite rank as a monoid of upper unitriangular matrices over the tropical semiring. Thus, we show that the stylic monoid of finite rank $n$ generates the pseudovariety $\boldsymbol{\mathcal{J}}_n$, which corresponds to the class of all piecewise testable languages of height $n$, in the framework of Eilenberg's correspondence. From this, we obtain the equational theory of the stylic monoids of finite rank, show that they are finitely based if and only if $n \leq 3$, and that their identity checking problem is decidable in linear…
Motivated by applications to low-rank matrix completion, we give a combinatorial characterization of the independent sets in the algebraic matroid associated to the collection of $m\times n$ rank-2 matrices and $n\times n$ skew-symmetric rank-2 matrices. Our approach is to use tropical geometry to reduce this to a problem about phylogenetic trees which we then solve. In particular, we give a combinatorial description of the collections of pairwise distances between several taxa that may be arbitrarily prescribed while still allowing the resulting dissimilarity map to be completed to a tree met…
We provide geometric methods and algorithms to verify, construct and enumerate pairs of words (of specified length over a fixed $m$-letter alphabet) that form identities in the semigroup $\ut{n}$ of $n\times n$ upper triangular tropical matrices. In the case $n=2$ these identities are precisely those satisfied by the bicyclic monoid, whilst in the case $n=3$ they form a subset of the identities which hold in the plactic monoid of rank $3$. To each word we associate a signature sequence of lattice polytopes, and show that two words form an identity for $\ut{n}$ if and only if their signatures a…
The Barvinok rank of a $d \times n$ matrix is the minimum number of points in $\mathbb{R}^d$ such that the tropical convex hull of the points contains all columns of the matrix. The concept originated in work by Barvinok and others on the travelling salesman problem. Our object of study is the space of real $d \times n$ matrices of Barvinok rank two. Let $B_{d,n}$ denote this space modulo rescaling and translation. We show that $B_{d,n}$ is a manifold, thereby settling a conjecture due to Develin. In fact, $B_{d,n}$ is homeomorphic to the quotient of the product of spheres $S^{d-2} \times S^{n…