In algebra, the Leibniz formula, named in honor of Gottfried Leibniz, expresses the determinant of a square matrix in terms of permutations of the matrix elements. If A is an n×n matrix, where ai,j is the entry in the ith row and jth column of A, the formula is where sgn is the sign function of permutations in the permutation group Sn, which returns +1 and −1 for even and odd permutations, respectively. Another common notation used for the formula is in terms of the Levi-Civita symbol and makes use of the Einstein summation notation, where it becomes which may be more familiar to physicists.