An Elementary Proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Tropical Algebra

In this paper we give an elementary proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra for polynomials over the rational tropical semi-ring. We prove that, tropically, the rational numbers are algebraically closed. We provide a simple algorithm for factoring tropical polynomials of a single variable. A central idea is the concept of least-coefficient polynomials as representatives for classes of functionally equivalent polynomials. This idea has importance far beyond the proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Tropical Algebra.