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Van Vu

Publications and source records attributed to Van Vu.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

Circular law for random discrete matrices of given row sum

Let $M_n$ be a random matrix of size $n\times n$ and let $λ_1,...,λ_n$ be the eigenvalues of $M_n$. The empirical spectral distribution $μ_{M_n}$ of $M_n$ is defined as $$μ_{M_n}(s,t)=\frac{1}{n}# \{k\le n, \Re(λ_k)\le s; \Im(λ_k)\le t\}.$$ The circular law theorem in random matrix theory asserts that if the entries of $M_n$ are i.i.d. copies of a random variable with mean zero and variance $σ^2$, then the empirical spectral distribution of the normalized matrix $\frac{1}{σ\sqrt{n}}M_n$ of $M_n$ converges almost surely to the uniform distribution $μ_\cir$ over the unit disk as $n$ tends to infinity. In this paper we show that the empirical spectral distribution of the normalized matrix of $M_n$, a random matrix whose rows are independent random $(-1,1)$ vectors of given row-sum $s$ with some fixed integer $s$ satisfying $|s|\le (1-o(1))n$, also obeys the circular law. The key ingredient is a new polynomial estimate on the least singular value of $M_n$.

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Random matrices: The Universality phenomenon for Wigner ensembles

In this paper, we survey some recent progress on rigorously establishing the universality of various spectral statistics of Wigner Hermitian random matrix ensembles, focusing on the Four Moment Theorem and its refinements and applications, including the universality of the sine kernel and the Central limit theorem of several spectral parameters. We also take the opportunity here to issue some errata for some of our previous papers in this area.

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A characterization of incomplete sequences in $F_p^d$

A sequence $A$ of elements an additive group $G$ is {\it incomplete} if there exists a group element that {\it can not} be expressed as a sum of elements from $A$. The study of incomplete sequences is a popular topic in combinatorial number theory. However, the structure of incomplete sequences is still far from being understood, even in basic groups. The main goal of this paper is to give a characterization of incomplete sequences in the vector space $F_p^d$, where $d$ is a fixed integer and $p$ is a large prime. As an application, we give a new proof for a recent result by Gao-Ruzsa-Thangadurai on the Olson's constant of $\F_p^2$ and partially answer their conjecture concerning $F_p^3$.

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The Wigner-Dyson-Mehta bulk universality conjecture for Wigner matrices

A well known conjecture of Wigner, Dyson, and Mehta asserts that the (appropriately normalized) $k$-point correlation functions of the eigenvalues of random $n \times n$ Wigner matrices in the bulk of the spectrum converge (in various senses) to the $k$-point correlation function of the Dyson sine process in the asymptotic limit $n \to \infty$. There has been much recent progress on this conjecture, in particular it has been established under a wide variety of decay, regularity, and moment hypotheses on the underlying atom distribution of the Wigner ensemble, and using various notions of convergence. Building upon these previous results, we establish new instances of this conjecture with weaker hypotheses on the atom distribution and stronger notions of convergence. In particular, assuming only a finite moment condition on the atom distribution, we can obtain convergence in the vague sense, and assuming an additional regularity condition, we can upgrade this convergence to locally $L^1$ convergence.

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Random matrices: Localization of the eigenvalues and the necessity of four moments

Consider the eigenvalues $λ_i(M_n)$ (in increasing order) of a random Hermitian matrix $M_n$ whose upper-triangular entries are independent with mean zero and variance one, and are exponentially decaying. By Wigner's semicircular law, one expects that $λ_i(M_n)$ concentrates around $γ_i \sqrt n$, where $\int_{-\infty}^{γ_i} ρ_{sc} (x) dx = \frac{i}{n}$ and $ρ_{sc}$ is the semicircular function. In this paper, we show that if the entries have vanishing third moment, then for all $1\le i \le n$ $$\E |λ_i(M_n)-\sqrt{n} γ_i|^2 = O(\min(n^{-c} \min(i,n+1-i)^{-2/3} n^{2/3}, n^{1/3+\eps})) ,$$ for some absolute constant $c>0$ and any absolute constant $\eps>0$. In particular, for the eigenvalues in the bulk ($\min \{i, n-i\}=Θ(n)$), $$\E |λ_i(M_n)-\sqrt{n} γ_i|^2 = O(n^{-c}). $$ \noindent A similar result is achieved for the rate of convergence. As a corollary, we show that the four moment condition in the Four Moment Theorem is necessary, in the sense that if one allows the fourth moment to change (while keeping the first three moments fixed), then the \emph{mean} of $λ_i(M_n)$ changes by an amount comparable to $n^{-1/2}$ on the average. We make a precise conjecture about how the expectation of the eigenvalues vary with the fourth moment.

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Random matrices: Universal properties of eigenvectors

The four moment theorem asserts, roughly speaking, that the joint distribution of a small number of eigenvalues of a Wigner random matrix (when measured at the scale of the mean eigenvalue spacing) depends only on the first four moments of the entries of the matrix. In this paper, we extend the four moment theorem to also cover the coefficients of the \emph{eigenvectors} of a Wigner random matrix. A similar result (with different hypotheses) has been proved recently by Knowles and Yin, using a different method. As an application, we prove some central limit theorems for these eigenvectors. In another application, we prove a universality result for the resolvent, up to the real axis. This implies universality of the inverse matrix.

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The Littlewood-Offord problem in high dimensions and a conjecture of Frankl and Füredi

We give a new bound on the probability that the random sum $ξ_1 v_1 +...+ ξ_n v_n$ belongs to a ball of fixed radius, where the $ξ_i$ are iid Bernoulli random variables and the $v_i$ are vectors in $\R^d$. As an application, we prove a conjecture of Frankl and Füredi (raised in 1988), which can be seen as the high dimensional version of the classical Littlewood-Offord-Erd\H os theorem.

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Optimal Inverse Littlewood-Offord theorems

Let eta_i be iid Bernoulli random variables, taking values -1,1 with probability 1/2. Given a multiset V of n integers v_1,..., v_n, we define the concentration probability as rho(V) := sup_{x} Pr(v_1 eta_1+...+ v_n eta_n=x). A classical result of Littlewood-Offord and Erdos from the 1940s asserts that if the v_i are non-zero, then rho(V) is O(n^{-1/2}). Since then, many researchers obtained improved bounds by assuming various extra restrictions on V. About 5 years ago, motivated by problems concerning random matrices, Tao and Vu introduced the Inverse Littlewood-Offord problem. In the inverse problem, one would like to give a characterization of the set V, given that rho(V) is relatively large. In this paper, we introduce a new method to attack the inverse problem. As an application, we strengthen a previous result of Tao and Vu, obtaining an optimal characterization for V. This immediately implies several classical theorems, such as those of Sarkozy-Szemeredi and Halasz. The method also applies in the continuous setting and leads to a simple proof for the beta-net theorem of Tao and Vu, which plays a key role in their recent studies of random matrices. All results extend to the general case when V is a subset of an abelian torsion-free group and eta_i are independent variables satisfying some weak conditions.

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A Note on the Central Limit Theorem for the Eigenvalue Counting Function of Wigner Matrices

The purpose of this note is to establish a Central Limit Theorem for the number of eigenvalues of a Wigner matrix in an interval. The proof relies on the correct aymptotics of the variance of the eigenvalue counting function of GUE matrices due to Gustavsson, and its extension to large families of Wigner matrices by means of the Tao and Vu Four Moment Theorem and recent localization results by Erdös, Yau and Yin.

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Sparse random graphs: Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors

In this paper we prove the semi-circular law for the eigenvalues of regular random graph $G_{n,d}$ in the case $d\rightarrow \infty$, complementing a previous result of McKay for fixed $d$. We also obtain a upper bound on the infinity norm of eigenvectors of Erdős-Rényi random graph $G(n,p)$, answering a question raised by Dekel-Lee-Linial.

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Bulk universality for Wigner hermitian matrices with subexponential decay

We consider the ensemble of $n \times n$ Wigner hermitian matrices $H = (h_{\ell k})_{1 \leq \ell,k \leq n}$ that generalize the Gaussian unitary ensemble (GUE). The matrix elements $h_{k\ell} = \bar h_{\ell k}$ are given by $h_{\ell k} = n^{-1/2} (x_{\ell k} + \sqrt{-1} y_{\ell k})$, where $x_{\ell k}, y_{\ell k}$ for $1 \leq \ell < k \leq n$ are i.i.d. random variables with mean zero and variance 1/2, $y_{\ell\ell}=0$ and $x_{\ell \ell}$ have mean zero and variance 1. We assume the distribution of $x_{\ell k}, y_{\ell k}$ to have subexponential decay. In a recent paper, four of the authors recently established that the gap distribution and averaged $k$-point correlation of these matrices were \emph{universal} (and in particular, agreed with those for GUE) assuming additional regularity hypotheses on the $x_{\ell k}, y_{\ell k}$. In another recent paper, the other two authors, using a different method, established the same conclusion assuming instead some moment and support conditions on the $x_{\ell k}, y_{\ell k}$. In this short note we observe that the arguments of these two papers can be combined to establish universality of the gap distribution and averaged $k$-point correlations for all Wigner matrices (with subexponentially decaying entries), with no extra assumptions.

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Random matrices: Universality of local eigenvalue statistics

In this paper, we consider the universality of the local eigenvalue statistics of random matrices. Our main result shows that these statistics are determined by the first four moments of the distribution of the entries. As a consequence, we derive the universality of eigenvalue gap distribution and $k$-point correlation and many other statistics (under some mild assumptions) for both Wigner Hermitian matrices and Wigner real symmetric matrices.

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Singular vectors under random perturbation

Computing the first few singular vectors of a large matrix is a problem that frequently comes up in statistics and numerical analysis. Given the presence of noise, exact calculation is hard to achieve, and the following problem is of importance: \vskip2mm \centerline {\it How much a small perturbation to the matrix changes the singular vectors ?} \vskip2mm Answering this question, classical theorems, such as those of Davis-Kahan and Wedin, give tight estimates for the worst-case scenario. In this paper, we show that if the perturbation (noise) is random and our matrix has low rank, then better estimates can be obtained. Our method relies on high dimensional geometry and is different from those used an earlier papers.

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Random matrices: Universality of local eigenvalue statistics up to the edge

This is a continuation of our earlier paper on the universality of the eigenvalues of Wigner random matrices. The main new results of this paper are an extension of the results in that paper from the bulk of the spectrum up to the edge. In particular, we prove a variant of the universality results of Soshnikov for the largest eigenvalues, assuming moment conditions rather than symmetry conditions. The main new technical observation is that there is a significant bias in the Cauchy interlacing law near the edge of the spectrum which allows one to continue ensuring the delocalization of eigenvectors.

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Spectra of lifted Ramanujan graphs

A random $n$-lift of a base graph $G$ is its cover graph $H$ on the vertices $[n]\times V(G)$, where for each edge $u v$ in $G$ there is an independent uniform bijection $π$, and $H$ has all edges of the form $(i,u),(π(i),v)$. A main motivation for studying lifts is understanding Ramanujan graphs, and namely whether typical covers of such a graph are also Ramanujan. Let $G$ be a graph with largest eigenvalue $λ_1$ and let $ρ$ be the spectral radius of its universal cover. Friedman (2003) proved that every "new" eigenvalue of a random lift of $G$ is $O(ρ^{1/2}λ_1^{1/2})$ with high probability, and conjectured a bound of $ρ+o(1)$, which would be tight by results of Lubotzky and Greenberg (1995). Linial and Puder (2008) improved Friedman's bound to $O(ρ^{2/3}λ_1^{1/3})$. For $d$-regular graphs, where $λ_1=d$ and $ρ=2\sqrt{d-1}$, this translates to a bound of $O(d^{2/3})$, compared to the conjectured $2\sqrt{d-1}$. Here we analyze the spectrum of a random $n$-lift of a $d$-regular graph whose nontrivial eigenvalues are all at most $λ$ in absolute value. We show that with high probability the absolute value of every nontrivial eigenvalue of the lift is $O((λ\vee ρ) \log ρ)$. This result is tight up to a logarithmic factor, and for $λ\leq d^{2/3-ε}$ it substantially improves the above upper bounds of Friedman and of Linial and Puder. In particular, it implies that a typical $n$-lift of a Ramanujan graph is nearly Ramanujan.

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Squares in sumsets

A finite set $A$ of integers is square-sum-free if there is no subset of $A$ sums up to a square. In 1986, Erd\H os posed the problem of determining the largest cardinality of a square-sum-free subset of $\{1, ..., n \}$. Answering this question, we show that this maximum cardinality is of order $n^{1/3+o(1)}$.

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A sharp inverse Littlewood-Offord theorem

Let $η_i, i=1,..., n$ be iid Bernoulli random variables. Given a multiset $\bv$ of $n$ numbers $v_1, ..., v_n$, the \emph{concentration probability} $¶_1(\bv)$ of $\bv$ is defined as $¶_1(\bv) := \sup_{x} ¶(v_1 η_1+ ... v_n η_n=x)$. A classical result of Littlewood-Offord and Erd\H os from the 1940s asserts that if the $v_i $ are non-zero, then this probability is at most $O(n^{-1/2})$. Since then, many researchers obtained better bounds by assuming various restrictions on $\bv$. In this paper, we give an asymptotically optimal characterization for all multisets $\bv$ having large concentration probability. This allow us to strengthen or recover several previous results in a straightforward manner.

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