Double boxes and double dimers

Abstract

We give a combinatorial proof of a result in rank 2 Donaldson-Thomas theory, which states that the generating function for certain plane-partition-like objects, called double-box configurations, is equal to a product of MacMahon's generating function for (boxed) plane partitions. In our proof, we first give the correspondence between double-box configurations and double-dimer configurations on the hexagon lattice with a particular tripartite node pairing. Using this correspondence, we apply graphical condensation and double-dimer condensation to prove the result.