Alex Fink

Queen Mary University London
, BH 217

Abstract

Introduction to tropical mathematics

In tropical mathematics, we change the definitionof the arithmetic operations: plus is replaced by taking the min-imum, and times by plus. In a surprising number of cases, thisseemingly violent transformation actually preserves many es-sential features of a problem, and we can glean insights abouta problem by passing back and forth between its usual and itstropical formulation. I’ll introduce the basics of the subject andgive examples of applications, many of geometric flavour.