Distances on the tropical line determined by two points

Puente, María Jesús de la

Kybernetika, Tome 50 (2014) no. 3, pp. 408-435

Résumé

Let $p'$ and $q'$ be points in $\mathbb{R}^n$. Write $p'\sim q'$ if $p'-q'$ is a multiple of $(1,\ldots,1)$. Two different points $p$ and $q$ in $\mathbb{R}^n/\sim$ uniquely determine a tropical line $L(p,q)$ passing through them and stable under small perturbations. This line is a balanced unrooted semi-labeled tree on $n$ leaves. It is also a metric graph. If some representatives $p'$ and $q'$ of $p$ and $q$ are the first and second columns of some real normal idempotent order $n$ matrix $A$, we prove that the tree $L(p,q)$ is described by a matrix $F$, easily obtained from $A$. We also prove that $L(p,q)$ is caterpillar. We prove that every vertex in $L(p,q)$ belongs to the tropical linear segment joining $p$ and $q$. A vertex, denoted $pq$, closest (w.r.t tropical distance) to $p$ exists in $L(p,q)$. Same for $q$. The distances between pairs of adjacent vertices in $L(p,q)$ and the distances $\operatorname{d}(p,pq)$, $\operatorname{d}(qp,q)$ and $\operatorname{d}(p,q)$ are certain entries of the matrix $|F|$. In addition, if $p$ and $q$ are generic, then the tree $L(p,q)$ is trivalent. The entries of $F$ are differences (i. e., sum of principal diagonal minus sum of secondary diagonal) of order 2 minors of the first two columns of $A$.

Détail

DOI : 10.14736/kyb-2014-3-0408

Classification : 05C50, 14T05, 15A80
Keywords: tropical distance; integer length; tropical line; normal matrix; idempotent matrix; caterpillar tree; metric graph