Problem:
Let be a tropical polynomial:
Prove that we can find so that
for all .
Solution
Solution:
Again, we have
So the graph of can be drawn as follows: first, draw all the lines , , then trace out the lowest broken line, which then is the graph of .
So is piecewise linear and continuous, and has slopes from the set . We know from the previous problem that is concave, and so its slope must be decreasing (this can also be observed simply from the drawing of the graph of ). Then, let denote the -coordinate of the leftmost kink such that the slope of the graph is less than to the right of this kink. Then, , and for , the graph of is linear with slope . Note that it is possible that , if no segment of has slope . Also, since , the leftmost piece of must have slope , and thus exists, and thus all exist.
Now, compare with
For , the slope of is , and for the slope of is and for the slope of is 0. So is piecewise linear, and of course it is continuous. It follows that the graph of coincides with that of up to a translation. By taking any , we see that , we see that the graphs of and coincide, and thus they must be the same function.