Cohen-Lenstra flag universality for random matrix products

Abstract

For $n \times n$ random integer matrices $M_1,\ldots,M_k$, the cokernels of the partial products $\mathrm{cok}(M_1 \cdots M_i), 1 \leq i \leq k$ naturally define a random flag of abelian $p$-groups. We prove that as $n \to \infty$, this flag converges universally, for any nondegenerate entry distribution, to the Cohen-Lenstra type measure which weights each flag inversely proportional to the size of its automorphism group. As a corollary, we prove universality of certain formulas for the limiting conditional distribution of $\mathrm{cok}(M_1M_2)$ given $\mathrm{cok}(M_1),\mathrm{cok}(M_2)$ in terms of Hall-Littlewood structure constants, which were previously obtained only for Haar matrices over $\mathbb{Z}_p$. Our proofs combine the general technology of Sawin-Wood, matrix product moment computations following those of Nguyen-Van Peski, and the computation done previously for Haar $p$-adic matrices by Huang.