We consider the max-plus analogue of the eigenproblem for matrix pencils
Ax=lambda Bx. We show that the spectrum of (A,B) (i.e., the set of possible
values of lambda), which is a finite union of intervals, can be computed in
pseudo-polynomial number of operations, by a (pseudo-polynomial) number of
calls to an oracle that computes the value of a mean payoff game. The proof
relies on the introduction of a spectral function, which we interpret in terms
of the least Chebyshev distance between Ax and lambda Bx. The spectrum is
obtained as the zero level set of this function.Comment: 34 pages, 4 figures. Changes with respect to the previous version: we
explain relation to mean-payoff games and discrete event systems, and show
that the reconstruction of spectrum is pseudopolynomia