Calculating eigenvectors in max-algebra by mutation-sunflower method

Abstract

In this article we introduce a new method, which we call a mutation-sunflower method, for calculating max-eigenvectors of a nonnegative irreducible $n\times n$ matrix $A$. Our method works in the general irreducible case, but it is in comparison with existing methods most effective for some special classes of matrices for example for sparse enough matrices. Our method reduces to solving max-eigenproblems for simple mutation-sunflower matrices that have exactly one positive entry in each row. We include some instructive examples.