Do all subtraction-free identities tropicalize?

If you take a subtraction-free rational identity like $(xxx+yyy)/(x+y)+xy=xx+yy$ and replace $\times$,$/$,$+$,$1$ by $+$,$-$,min,$0$, do you always get a valid min,plus,minus identity like min(min($x+x+x,y+y+y$)$-$min($x,y$),$\:x+y$)$\ =\$min($x+x,y+y$)?

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Colin and Will's answers are both convincing; thanks! One thing more I'd appreciate is a literature reference that I can cite if I publish something that makes use of this transfer principle. Given how straightforward the proof is (at least in hindsight), it's likely that some version of this result appears in some existing book or article. –  James Propp Apr 10 '13 at 19:06
There would be an existing tag 'tropical-arithmetic'. I just would like to check if your created the new tag specifically and would like to have it in addition or if you were fine with changing to the other tag. Thanks in advance. –  quid Apr 11 '13 at 17:42
@quid: I've changed tropical-mathematics to tropical-arithmetic. Thanks for pointing out the existence of the tropical-arithmetic tag. –  James Propp Apr 12 '13 at 2:07

It suffices to show that whenever $F$ is a function $\mathbb R_{\geq 0}^k\to\mathbb R_{\geq 0}$ defined using $\times,/,+,1$, and $f,g$ is the corresponding tropicalization $\mathbb R^k\to\mathbb R$, for all real $x_1,\dots,x_k$ we have $$F(\exp(-\beta x_1),\dots,\exp(-\beta x_k))^{1/\beta}\to \exp(-f(x_1,\dots,x_k)).$$ as $\beta\to+\infty$.

This follows by structural induction on the formula defining $f$, using the following lemma.

Lemma: Let $F$ be one of the operations $\times,/,+$, let $f$ be the corresponding tropical operation, and let $G_1$ and $G_2$ be functions $\mathbb R_{> 0}\to\mathbb R_{> 0}$ such that $G_1(\beta)^{1/\beta}$ tends to some limit $e^{-x_1}$ as $\beta\to\infty$, and likewise $G_2(\beta)^{1/\beta}\to e^{-x_2}$. Then $$F(G_1(\beta),G_2(\beta))^{1/\beta}\to \exp(- f(x_1,x_2)).$$ as $\beta\to+\infty$.

Proof: The operations $\times$ and $/$ are easy - the only non-trivial step is $$(G_1(\beta)+G_2(\beta))^{1/\beta}\to e^{-\beta \min(x_1,x_2)}.$$

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Yes. Replace $x$ with $e^{Na}$, $y$ with $e^{Nb}$, etc. Then take the log, then divide by $N$. One gets a new identity where $\times$ is replaced by $+$, $/$ by $-$, $1$ by $0$, and $u+v$ by $\ln (e^{N u} + e^{N v})= \min(u,v) + \ln\left( 1+ e^{-N |u-v|}\right)/N = \min(u,v) + O(1/N)$. Then take the limit as $N$ goes to $\infty$. You now have a tropcal identity.