Abstract
We study the calculation of the volume of the polytope $B_n$ of n x n doubly stochastic matrices (real nonnegative matrices with row and column sums equal to one). We describe two methods. The first involves a decomposition of the polytope into simplices. The second involves the enumeration of "magic squares", that is, n x n nonnegative integer matrices whose rows and columns all sum to the same integer.
We have used the first method to confirm the previously known values through n=7. This method can also be used to compute the volumes of faces of $B_n$. For example, we have observed that the volume of a particular face of $B_n$ appears to be a product of Catalan numbers. We have used the second method to find the volume for n=8, which we believe was not previously known.
Citation
Clara S. Chan. David P. Robbins. "On the volume of the polytope of doubly stochastic matrices." Experiment. Math. 8 (3) 291 - 300, 1999.
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