arXiv subjects

Djalil Chafaï

Publications and source records attributed to Djalil Chafaï.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

On the convergence of the extremal eigenvalues of empirical covariance matrices with dependence

Consider a sample of a centered random vector with unit covariance matrix. We show that under certain regularity assumptions, and up to a natural scaling, the smallest and the largest eigenvalues of the empirical covariance matrix converge, when the dimension and the sample size both tend to infinity, to the left and right edges of the Marchenko--Pastur distribution. The assumptions are related to tails of norms of orthogonal projections. They cover isotropic log-concave random vectors as well as random vectors with i.i.d. coordinates with almost optimal moment conditions. The method is a refinement of the rank one update approach used by Srivastava and Vershynin to produce non-asymptotic quantitative estimates. In other words we provide a new proof of the Bai and Yin theorem using basic tools from probability theory and linear algebra, together with a new extension of this theorem to random matrices with dependent entries.

math.PR↗

arXiv2015

From Boltzmann to random matrices and beyond

These expository notes propose to follow, across fields, some aspects of the concept of entropy. Starting from the work of Boltzmann in the kinetic theory of gases, various universes are visited, including Markov processes and their Helmholtz free energy, the Shannon monotonicity problem in the central limit theorem, the Voiculescu free probability theory and the free central limit theorem, random walks on regular trees, the circular law for the complex Ginibre ensemble of random matrices, and finally the asymptotic analysis of mean-field particle systems in arbitrary dimension, confined by an external field and experiencing singular pair repulsion. The text is written in an informal style driven by energy and entropy. It aims to be recreative and to provide to the curious readers entry points in the literature, and connections across boundaries.

math.HO↗

arXiv2014

First order global asymptotics for confined particles with singular pair repulsion

We study a physical system of $N$ interacting particles in $\mathbb{R}^d$, $d\geq1$, subject to pair repulsion and confined by an external field. We establish a large deviations principle for their empirical distribution as $N$ tends to infinity. In the case of Riesz interaction, including Coulomb interaction in arbitrary dimension $d>2$, the rate function is strictly convex and admits a unique minimum, the equilibrium measure, characterized via its potential. It follows that almost surely, the empirical distribution of the particles tends to this equilibrium measure as $N$ tends to infinity. In the more specific case of Coulomb interaction in dimension $d>2$, and when the external field is a convex or increasing function of the radius, then the equilibrium measure is supported in a ring. With a quadratic external field, the equilibrium measure is uniform on a ball.

math.PR↗

arXiv2014

A note on the second order universality at the edge of Coulomb gases on the plane

We consider in this note a class of two-dimensional determinantal Coulomb gases confined by a radial external field. As the number of particles tends to infinity, their empirical distribution tends to a probability measure supported in a centered ring of the complex plane. A quadratic confinement corresponds to the complex Ginibre Ensemble. In this case, it is also already known that the asymptotic fluctuation of the radial edge follows a Gumbel law. We establish in this note the universality of this edge behavior, beyond the quadratic case. The approach, inspired by earlier works of Kostlan and Rider, boils down to identities in law and to an instance of the Laplace method.

math.PR↗

arXiv2014

Circular law for random matrices with exchangeable entries

An exchangeable random matrix is a random matrix with distribution invariant under any permutation of the entries. For such random matrices, we show, as the dimension tends to infinity, that the empirical spectral distribution tends to the uniform law on the unit disc. This is an instance of the universality phenomenon known as the circular law, for a model of random matrices with dependent entries, rows, and columns. It is also a non-Hermitian counterpart of a result of Chatterjee on the semi-circular law for random Hermitian matrices with exchangeable entries. The proof relies in particular on a reduction to a simpler model given by a random shuffle of a rigid deterministic matrix, on Hermitization, and also on combinatorial concentration of measure and combinatorial Central Limit Theorem. A crucial step is a polynomial bound on the smallest singular value of exchangeable random matrices, which may be of independent interest.

math.PR↗

arXiv2013

Intertwining and commutation relations for birth-death processes

Given a birth-death process on $\mathbb {N}$ with semigroup $(P_t)_{t\geq0}$ and a discrete gradient ${\partial}_u$ depending on a positive weight $u$, we establish intertwining relations of the form ${\partial}_uP_t=Q_t\,{\partial}_u$, where $(Q_t)_{t\geq0}$ is the Feynman-Kac semigroup with potential $V_u$ of another birth-death process. We provide applications when $V_u$ is nonnegative and uniformly bounded from below, including Lipschitz contraction and Wasserstein curvature, various functional inequalities, and stochastic orderings. Our analysis is naturally connected to the previous works of Caputo-Dai Pra-Posta and of Chen on birth-death processes. The proofs are remarkably simple and rely on interpolation, commutation, and convexity.

math.PR↗

arXiv2012

Spectrum of large random reversible Markov chains: Heavy-tailed weights on the complete graph

We consider the random reversible Markov kernel K obtained by assigning i.i.d. nonnegative weights to the edges of the complete graph over n vertices and normalizing by the corresponding row sum. The weights are assumed to be in the domain of attraction of an $α$-stable law, $α\in(0,2)$. When $1\leqα<2$, we show that for a suitable regularly varying sequence $κ_n$ of index $1-1/α$, the limiting spectral distribution $μ_α$ of $κ_nK$ coincides with the one of the random symmetric matrix of the un-normalized weights (Lévy matrix with i.i.d. entries). In contrast, when $0<α<1$, we show that the empirical spectral distribution of K converges without rescaling to a nontrivial law $\widetildeμ_α$ supported on [-1,1], whose moments are the return probabilities of the random walk on the Poisson weighted infinite tree (PWIT) introduced by Aldous. The limiting spectral distributions are given by the expected value of the random spectral measure at the root of suitable self-adjoint operators defined on the PWIT. This characterization is used together with recursive relations on the tree to derive some properties of $μ_α$ and $\widetildeμ_α$. We also study the limiting behavior of the invariant probability measure of K.

math.PR↗