Toeplitz Matrices and Determinants Under the Impetus of the Ising Model

This is the first of two talks in which the speaker will discuss the development of the theory of Toeplitz matrices and determinants in response to questions arising in the analysis of the Ising model of statistical mechanics. The first talk will be largely historical and the second will describe the state of the art today, including recent results of the speaker and his colleagues Alexander Its and Igor Krasovsky.