On \(2 \times 2\) tropical commuting matrices (Q2020679)

Let \(\overline{\mathbb{R}}\) denote the tropical semiring \(\overline{\mathbb{R}}=\mathbb{R}\cup \{-\infty\}\) with tropical operations \(x\oplus y=\max(a,b)\) and \(x\otimes y=x+y\). The author studies the geometric features of the solution set for a two-sided system induced by the commuting condition \(A \times B=B\otimes A\) for in \( \overline{\mathbb{R}}^{2\times 2}\), where \(A\) is a given matrix with finite entries. In the main result of the paper, it is shown that the solution set for this system is a finitely generated tropical cone. The author then describes a basis for this space, and gives a characterization for all matrices in \(\overline{\mathbb{R}}^{2\times 2}\) that commute with a given matrix in \(\mathbb{R}^{2\times 2}\).