Who is Albert Wormstein?

Solution 1:

Here is Ian own answer to your question (personal communication with his permission to give it here). His own version of story is nice to hear as ever and it somehow answers the why part of your question.

The link [refering to your question] has the correct story . Albert Wormstein first appeared in one of my articles for Pour La Science / Scientific American, which was used as a chapter in the cited book.

While I was writing that article it suddenly seemed clear that there ought to be a way to prove the conjecture about order 3 polyominoes. It felt as though Albert was tapping me on the shoulder and saying 'come on, we can do this.' It quickly turned out he was right. So I decided to give him credit as a co-author. The journal either spotted the joke and went along with it, or they assumed Albert was a PhD student. At any rate, they published it with him as co-author.

Solution 2:

The answer to your amazing question is indeed, Albert Wormstein is a character among others such as Maxdoch Murwell from Ian's mathematical fiction Another Fine Math You've Got Me Into...

It would be the same as asking Lewis whether Alice would be real from Wonderland.

From a mathematical point of view I would say Wormstein is real but from a physical point of veiw no.