We consider tropical hemispaces, defined as tropically convex sets whose complements are also tropically convex, and tropical semispaces, defined as maximal tropically convex sets not containing a given point. We introduce the concept of $(P,R)$-deco
mposition. This yields (to our knowledge) a new kind of representation of tropically convex sets extending the classical idea of representing convex sets by means of extreme points and rays. We characterize tropical hemispaces as tropically convex sets that admit a (P,R)-decomposition of certain kind. In this characterization, with each tropical hemispace we associate a matrix with coefficients in the completed tropical semifield, satisfying an extended rank-one condition. Our proof techniques are based on homogenization (lifting a convex set to a cone), and the relation between tropical hemispaces and semispaces.
Tropical polyhedra have been recently used to represent disjunctive invariants in static analysis. To handle larger instances, tropical analogues of classical linear programming results need to be developed. This motivation leads us to study the trop
ical analogue of the classical linear-fractional programming problem. We construct an associated parametric mean payoff game problem, and show that the optimality of a given point, or the unboundedness of the problem, can be certified by exhibiting a strategy for one of the players having certain infinitesimal properties (involving the value of the game and its derivative) that we characterize combinatorially. We use this idea to design a Newton-like algorithm to solve tropical linear-fractional programming problems, by reduction to a sequence of auxiliary mean payoff game problems.
This paper studies commuting matrices in max algebra and nonnegative linear algebra. Our starting point is the existence of a common eigenvector, which directly leads to max analogues of some classical results for complex matrices. We also investigat
e Frobenius normal forms of commuting matrices, particularly when the Perron roots of the components are distinct. For the case of max algebra, we show how the intersection of eigencones of commuting matrices can be described, and we consider connections with Boolean algebra which enables us to prove that two commuting irreducible matrices in max algebra have a common eigennode.
