Green's \(\mathcal J\)-order and the rank of tropical matrices. (Q1946169)

Tropical algebra is the algebra of real numbers under the operations of addition and maximum. The paper presents a study of Green's \(\mathcal J\)-order and \(\mathcal J\)-equivalence for the semigroup of \(n\times n\) matrices over the tropical semiring, giving a characterization of the \(\mathcal J\)-order in terms of morphisms between certain tropical convex sets. There are connections between \(\mathcal J\)-order, isometries of tropical convex sets and various notions of rank for tropical matrices. The relationship between \(\mathcal J\) and \(\mathcal D\) is also considered. The authors prove that, for all full matrix semigroups over the finitary tropical semiring, \(\mathcal D=\mathcal J\).