This year’s CRP topic lies within the mathematical subdiscipline of tropical geometry. Tropical geometry is a relatively new mathematical research area. Dr. David Speyer (Michigan) and Dr. Bernd Sturmfels (UC-Berkeley) authored a survey article aimed at undergraduates. Your first task is to obtain a copy of this article — let us know if this proves difficult.
David Speyer and Bernd Sturmfels, Tropical Mathematics, Mathematics Magazine (2009), 163–173.
CRP Research Topic
The CRP research topic this year is taken directly from one of the research problems in Speyer & Sturmfels’ article. The top of page 171 poses a problem on phylogenetic rank. CRP proposes that we give as full of an answer to this research problem as possible. It is possible (even likely!) that our results will extend past this research problem.
How to get started
Read the above article. Ask questions, using the Collaboration Wiki. Compute examples. And read our Problem Releases, which we’ll post on this page.
CRP Problem Releases
The CRP Team will post some guiding documents here. The scope of your contribution may extend beyond the primary challenge described in these releases, but they should offer a starting point for your investigations.