English

Tropical $k$-means clustering for phylogenetic trees

Combinatorics 2026-03-02 v1

Abstract

The asymmetric tropical distance is a distance measure on the tropical torus Rn/R1\mathbb{R}^n/\mathbb{R}\mathbf{1} and in particular on the Bergman fan B(KN)R(N2)/R1B(K_N) \subseteq \mathbb{R}^{\binom{N}{2}}/\mathbb{R}\mathbf{1} of the complete graphical matroid. In this paper, we define and analyse a clustering algorithm for equidistant phylogenetic trees based on this distance, using the correspondence between B(KN)B(K_N) and the space of equidistant trees with NN leaves.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.24095,
  title  = {Tropical $k$-means clustering for phylogenetic trees},
  author = {Fabian Lenzen and Lena Weis},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.24095},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T10:55:44.520Z