Polytropes and tropical eigenspaces: cones of linearity (Q2249471)

Any real \(n\)-square matrix \(A\) has a unique tropical eigenvalue \(\lambda\). The polytrope \(\mathrm{Pol}(A)\) of \(A\) is the set of points \(x\) in the tropical torus \(\mathbb R^n/\mathbb R (1,\dots, 1)\) satisfying \[ \max_{i,j}(A_{ij}+x_j-x_i)=\lambda. \] It is a tropical polytope, i.e., the tropical convex hull of finitely many points in the tropical torus. We may identify it with its tropical extreme points. The author of the paper under review constructs a fan such that in the relative interior of its cones, the map \(A\mapsto\mathrm{Pol}(A)\) is given by a unique set of linear functionals in the entries of \(A\). This fan is shown to be the normal fan of an \(n(n-1)\)-dimensional polytope in \(\mathbb R^{n\times n}\), whose face lattice is isomorphic to the lattice of complete sets of connected relations. The fan refines the non-fan partition of \(\mathbb R^{n\times n}\), previously constructed by \textit{B. Sturmfels} and the author [Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 45, No. 1, 27--36 (2013; Zbl 1269.15009)], corresponding to cones of linearity of the eigenvector map. The paper under review answers questions raised in that previous work and leads to a new combinatorial classification of polytropes and tropical eigenspaces.