Asymptotic Behavior of the Maximum and Minimum Singular Value of Random Vandermonde Matrices

Abstract: This work examines various statistical distributions in connection with random Vandermonde matrices and their extension to $d$--dimensional phase distributions. Upper and lower bound asymptotics for the maximum singular value are found to be $O(\log^{1/2}{N^{d}})$ and $\Omega((\log N^{d} /(\log \log N^d))^{1/2})$ respectively where $N$ is the dimension of the matrix, generalizing the results in \cite{TW}. We further study the behavior of the minimum singular value of these random matrices. In particular, we prove that the minimum singular value is at most $N\exp(-C\sqrt{N}))$ with high probability where $C$ is a constant independent on $N$. Furthermore, the value of the constant $C$ is determined explicitly. The main result is obtained in two different ways. One approach uses techniques from stochastic processes and in particular, a construction related to the Brownian bridge. The other one is a more direct analytical approach involving combinatorics and complex analysis. As a consequence, we obtain a lower bound for the maximum absolute value of a random complex polynomial on the unit circle, which may be of independent mathematical interest. Lastly, for each sequence of positive integers ${k_p}{p=1}^{\infty}$ we present a generalized version of the previously discussed matrices. The classical random Vandermonde matrix corresponds to the sequence $k{p}=p-1$. We find a combinatorial formula for their moments and we show that the limit eigenvalue distribution converges to a probability measure supported on $[0,\infty)$. Finally, we show that for the sequence $k_p=2^{p}$ the limit eigenvalue distribution is the famous Marchenko--Pastur distribution.