\(q,t\)-combinatorics and sandpiles

In 1987 Bak, Tang and Wiesenfeld introduced their famous sandpile model as a first system showing self-organized criticality.
In 1988 Macdonald introduced his famous symmetric polynomials.
Each of these two discoveries produced a huge amount of research that is still going on intensely today.
But until recently, these two lines of research went on without any relevant communication.
In this talk we show how the combinatorics generated by these two important mathematical objects come together in a surprising way, proving that a strong interaction between these two topics is now inevitable.