English

Distribution of singular values in large sample cross-covariance matrices

Statistics Theory 2025-08-29 v3 Disordered Systems and Neural Networks Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability Statistics Theory

Abstract

For two large matrices X{\mathbf X} and Y{\mathbf Y} with Gaussian i.i.d.\ entries and dimensions T×NXT\times N_X and T×NYT\times N_Y, respectively, we derive the probability distribution of the singular values of XTY\mathbf{X}^T \mathbf{Y} in different parameter regimes. This extends the Marchenko-Pastur result for the distribution of eigenvalues of empirical sample covariance matrices to singular values of empirical cross-covariances. Our results will help to establish statistical significance of cross-correlations in many data-science applications.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2502.05254,
  title  = {Distribution of singular values in large sample cross-covariance matrices},
  author = {Arabind Swain and Sean Alexander Ridout and Ilya Nemenman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.05254},
  year   = {2025}
}