Eduardo Chavez Heredia

Alternating Sign Matrix Conjecture

At first glance, the Alternating Sign Matrix conjecture... actually a theorem is just a combinatorial result that tells you how many matrices of a particular type there are. The result is neat, but not too exciting. However, behind this result there is an exciting story of how the proof came to be. In this talk I will tell you how Alternating Sign Matrices link together many unlikely objects of mathematics and physics such as determinants, plane partitions, the Yang-Baxter equation, exactly solvable models and even Alice in Wonderland.