  A statistical amoeba arises from a real-valued partition function when the
positivity condition for pre-exponential terms is relaxed, and families of
signatures are taken into account. This notion lets us explore special types of
constraints when we focus on those signatures that preserve particular
properties. Specifically, we look at sums of determinantal type, and main
attention is paid to a distinguished class of soliton solutions of the
Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP) II equation. A characterization of the signatures
preserving the determinantal form, as well as the signatures compatible with
the KP II equation, is provided: both of them are reduced to choices of signs
for columns and rows of a coefficient matrix, and they satisfy the whole KP
hierarchy. Interpretations in term of information-theoretic properties,
geometric characteristics, and the relation with tropical limits are discussed.
