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{\bf 
James Propp}\bigskip\noindent
Generating Random Elements of Finite Distributive Lattices
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This survey article describes a method for choosing uniformly
at random from any finite set whose objects can be viewed as
constituting a distributive lattice. The method is based on ideas
of the author and David Wilson for using \lq\lq coupling from the
past\rq\rq\ to remove initialization bias from Monte Carlo
randomization. The article describes several applications to
specific kinds of combinatorial objects such as tilings, 
constrained lattice paths, an alternating sign matrices.
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