Arrow Contraction and Expansion in Tropical Diagrams

Abstract: Arrow contraction applied to a tropical diagram of probability spaces is a modification of the diagram, replacing one of the morphisms by an isomorphims, while preserving other parts of the diagram. It is related to the rate regions introduced by Ahlswede and K\"orner. In a companion article we use arrow contraction to derive information about the shape of the entropic cone. Arrow expansion is the inverse operation to the arrow contraction.