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Delocalization of random band matrices at the edge

Probability 2025-06-25 v3 Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

We consider N×NN\times N Hermitian random band matrices H=(Hxy)H=(H_{xy}), whose entries are centered complex Gaussian random variables. The indices x,yx,y range over the dd-dimensional discrete torus (Z/LZ)d(\mathbb Z/L\mathbb Z)^d with d{1,2}d\in \{1,2\} and N=LdN=L^d. The variance profile Sxy=Ehxy2S_{xy}=\mathbb E|h_{xy}|^2 exhibits a banded structure: specifically, Sxy=0S_{xy}=0 whenever the distance xy|x-y| exceeds a band width parameter WLW\le L. Let W=LαW=L^\alpha for some exponent 0<α10<\alpha\le 1. We show that as α\alpha increases from 1d=1/2\mathbf 1_{d=1}/2 to 1d/61-d/6, the range of energies corresponding to delocalized eigenvectors gradually expands from the bulk toward the entire spectrum. More precisely, we prove that eigenvectors associated with energies EE satisfying 2ENcd,α2 - |E| \gg N^{-c_{d,\alpha}} are delocalized, where the exponent cd,αc_{d,\alpha} is given by cd,α=2α1c_{d,\alpha} = 2\alpha - 1 in dimension 1 and cd,α=αc_{d,\alpha} = \alpha in dimension 2. Furthermore, when α>1d/6\alpha > 1-d/6, all eigenvectors of HH become delocalized. We further establish quantum unique ergodicity for delocalized eigenvectors, as well as a rigidity estimate for the eigenvalues. Our findings extend previous results -- established in the bulk regime for one-dimensional (1D) (arXiv:2501.01718) and two-dimensional (2D) (arXiv:2503.07606) random band matrices -- to the entire spectrum, including the spectral edges. They also complement the results of arXiv:0906.4047 and arXiv:2401.00492, which concern the edge eigenvalue statistics for 1D and 2D random band matrices.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2505.11993,
  title  = {Delocalization of random band matrices at the edge},
  author = {Fan Yang and Jun Yin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.11993},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

60 pages. Minor updates. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2503.11382