The Laurent phenomenon

Abstract

A composition of birational maps given by Laurent polynomials need not be given by Laurent polynomials; however, sometimes---quite unexpectedly---it does. We suggest a unified treatment of this phenomenon, which covers a large class of applications. In particular, we settle in the affirmative a conjecture of D$.$Gale and R$.$Robinson on integrality of generalized Somos sequences, and prove the Laurent property for several multidimensional recurrences, confirming conjectures by J$.$Propp, N$.$Elkies, and M$.$Kleber.

21 pages

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