Toeplitz Matrices and Lattice Paths -
A Toeplitz matrix is a square matrix whose (i,j) entry depends only on the difference i-j.  Just over a century ago, George Pólya conjectured an explicit formula for the limiting behavior of determinants of large Toeplitz matrices.  During a visit to his native Budapest, Pólya was fortunate to meet an undergraduate named Gábor Szegő who soon proved his conjecture.  In this talk, we will state Szegő’s result, interpret it as a solution of a counting problem for certain lattice paths in two dimensions, and indicate a generalization of this result of recent research interest.  All are welcome to attend!