Harold Widom’s work in random matrix theory

Corwin, Ivan; Deift, Percy; Its, Alexander

doi:10.1090/bull/1757

Harold Widom’s work in random matrix theory
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by Ivan Z. Corwin, Percy A. Deift and Alexander R. Its;

Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 59 (2022), 155-173

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1090/bull/1757

Published electronically: January 21, 2022

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Abstract:

This is a survey of Harold Widom’s work in random matrices. We start with his pioneering papers on the sine-kernel determinant, continue with his and Craig Tracy’s groundbreaking results concerning the distribution functions of random matrix theory, touch on the remarkable universality of the Tracy–Widom distributions in mathematics and physics, and close with Tracy and Widom’s remarkable work on the asymmetric simple exclusion process.

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