Notes on Egoritsjev's proof of the van der Waerden conjecture

AbstractA solution to the van der Waerden conjecture on the minimum of the permanent of doubly stochastic matrices has recently been found by G.P. Ergoritsjev (in Russian). Because of the wide interest in this conjecture, it seems useful to make the solution more accessible. Professor van Lint has kindly consented to have his notes (including a direct proof of an inequality available in the literature only in a more general form) published in this journal. Ed. (R.A.B.