Lemma of Lindstrom-Gessel-Viennot

Date: October 4, 2022

Time: 7:00PM - 8:30PM

Location: BLOC 166

Speaker: Catherine Yan, Texas A&M University

Description: The Lemma of Lindstrom-Gessel-Viennot is one of the most elegant theorems in Enumerative Combinatorics, which reveals via involutions an astounding connection between lattice paths and determinants. It was originally proved by Lindstrom in 1973, but its combinatorial significance was seen first and expounded by Gessel and Viennot. In this talk, we will start with the idea of involution/reflection in combinatorial problems, introduce this lemma, and show various applications in matrix identity, lattice path counting, and plane partitions.