Abstract Let λ 1 , … , λ n denote the eigenvalues of a n × n matrix, ordered by nonincreasing absolute value, and let γ 1 ≥ ⋯ ≥ γ n denote the tropical eigenvalues of an associated n × n matrix, obtained by replacing every entry of the original matrix by its absolute value. We show that for all 1 ≤ k ≤ n , | λ 1 ⋯ λ k | ≤ C n , k γ 1 ⋯ γ k , where C n , k is a combinatorial constant depending only on k and on the pattern of the matrix. This generalizes an inequality by Friedland (1986), corresponding to the special case k = 1 .
Abstract Given any complex Laurent polynomial f , Amoeba ( f ) is the image of its complex zero set under the coordinate-wise log absolute value map. We discuss an efficiently constructible polyhedral approximation, ArchTrop ( f ) , of Amoeba ( f ) , and derive explicit upper and lower bounds, solely as a function of the number of monomial terms of f , for the Hausdorff distance between these two sets. We also show that deciding whether a given point lies in ArchTrop ( f ) is doable in polynomial-time, for any fixed dimension, unlike the corresponding problem for Amoeba ( f ) , which is NP -hard already in one variable. ArchTrop ( f ) can thus serve as a canonical low order approximation to start a higher order iterative polynomial system solving algorithm, e.g., homotopy continuation. The amoeba of a holomorphic function @math is, by definition, the image in @math of the zero locus of @math under the simple mapping that takes each coordinate to the logarithm of its modulus. The terminology was introduced in the 1990s by the famous (biologist and) mathematician Israel Gelfand and his coauthors Kapranov and Zelevinsky (GKZ). In this paper we study a natural convex potential function @math with the property that its Monge-Ampere mass is concentrated to the amoeba of @math We obtain results of two kinds; by approximating @math with a piecewise linear function, we get striking combinatorial information regarding the amoeba and the Newton polytope of @math ; by computing the Monge-Ampere measure, we find sharp bounds for the area of amoebas in @math . We also consider systems of functions @math and prove a local version of the classical Bernstein theorem on the number of roots of systems of algebraic equations.