Alternating sign matrix

In mathematics, an alternating sign matrix is a square matrix of 0s, 1s, and −1s such that the sum of each row and column is 1 and the nonzero entries in each row and column alternate in sign. These matrices generalize permutation matrices and arise naturally when using Dodgson condensation to compute a determinant. They are also closely related to the six-vertex model with domain wall boundary conditions from statistical mechanics. They were first defined by William Mills, David Robbins, and Howard Rumsey in the former context.

${\displaystyle {\begin{matrix}{\begin{bmatrix}1&0&0\\0&1&0\\0&0&1\end{bmatrix}}\qquad {\begin{bmatrix}1&0&0\\0&0&1\\0&1&0\end{bmatrix}}\\{\begin{bmatrix}0&1&0\\1&0&0\\0&0&1\end{bmatrix}}\qquad {\begin{bmatrix}0&1&0\\1&-1&1\\0&1&0\end{bmatrix}}\qquad {\begin{bmatrix}0&1&0\\0&0&1\\1&0&0\end{bmatrix}}\\{\begin{bmatrix}0&0&1\\1&0&0\\0&1&0\end{bmatrix}}\qquad {\begin{bmatrix}0&0&1\\0&1&0\\1&0&0\end{bmatrix}}\end{matrix}}}$

The seven alternating sign matrices of size 3