The polytopal structure of the tight-span of a totally split-decomposable metric

The tight-span of a finite metric space is a polytopal complex that has appeared in several areas of mathematics. In this paper we determine the polytopal structure of the tight-span of a totally split-decomposable (finite) metric. These metrics are a generalization of tree-metrics and have importance within phylogenetics. In previous work, we showed that the cells of the tight-span of such a metric are zonotopes that are polytope isomorphic to either hypercubes or rhombic dodecahedra. Here, we extend these results and show that the tight-span of a totally split-decomposable metric can be broken up into a canonical collection of polytopal complexes whose polytopal structures can be directly determined from the metric. This allows us to also completely determine the polytopal structure of the tight-span of a totally split-decomposable metric. We anticipate that our improved understanding of this structure may lead to improved techniques for phylogenetic inference.