Supertropical matrix algebra III: Powers of matrices and generalized eigenspaces

We investigate powers of supertropical matrices, with special attention to the role of the coefficients of the supertropical characteristic polynomial (especially the supertropical trace) in controlling the rank of a power of a matrix. This leads to a Jordan-type decomposition of supertropical matrices, together with a generalized eigenspace decomposition of a power of an arbitrary supertropical matrix.Comment: 21 page

Dependence of Supertropical Eigenspaces

We study the pathology that causes tropical eigenspaces of distinct supertropical eigenvalues of a nonsingular matrix $A$, to be dependent. We show that in lower dimensions the eigenvectors of distinct eigenvalues are independent, as desired. The index set that differentiates between subsequent essential monomials of the characteristic polynomial, yields an eigenvalue $\lambda$, and corresponds to the columns of the eigenmatrix $A+\lambda I$ from which the eigenvectors are taken. We ascertain the cause for failure in higher dimensions, and prove that independence of the eigenvectors is recovered in case a certain "difference criterion" holds, defined in terms of disjoint differences between index sets of subsequent coefficients. We conclude by considering the eigenvectors of the matrix A^\nabla : = \det(A)^{-1}\adj(A) and the connection of the independence question to generalized eigenvectors.Comment: The first author is sported by the French Chateaubriand grant and INRIA postdoctoral fellowshi