Transfer matrix in counting problems made easy

Abstract: The transfer matrix is a powerful technique that can be applied to statistical mechanics systems as, for example, in the calculus of the entropy of the ice model. One interesting way to study such systems is to map it onto a 3-color problem. In this paper, we explicitly build the transfer matrix for the 3-color problem in order to calculate the number of possible configurations for finite systems with free, periodic in one direction and toroidal boundary conditions (periodic in both directions)