Random Matrices: the Distribution of the Smallest Singular Values

Let ξ be a real-valued random variable of mean zero and variance 1. Let Mn(ξ) denote the n × n random matrix whose entries are iid copies of ξ and σn(Mn(ξ)) denote the least singular value of Mn(ξ). The quantity σn(Mn(ξ)) 2 is thus the least eigenvalue of the Wishart matrix MnM ∗ n. We show that (under a finite moment assumption) the probability distribution nσn(Mn(ξ)) 2 is universal in the sense that it does not depend on the distribution of ξ. In particular, it converges to the same limiting distribution as in the special case when ξ is real gaussian. (The limiting distribution was computed explicitly in this case by Edelman.) We also proved a similar result for complex-valued random variables of mean zero, with real and imaginary parts having variance 1/2 and covariance zero. Similar results are also obtained for the joint distribution of the bottom k singular values of Mn(ξ) for any fixed k (or even for k growing as a small power of n) and for rectangular matrices. Our approach is motivated by the general idea of “property testing” from combinatorics and theoretical computer science. This seems to be a new approach in the study of spectra of random matrices and combines tools from various areas of mathematics.