Edge spectra of Gaussian random symmetric matrices with correlated entries

We study the largest eigenvalue of a Gaussian random symmetric matrix $X_n$, with zero-mean, unit variance entries satisfying the condition $\sup_{(i, j) \ne (i', j')}|\mathbb{E}[X_{ij} X_{i'j'}]| = O(n^{-(1 + \varepsilon)})$, where $\varepsilon > 0$. It follows from Catalano et al. (2024) that the empirical spectral distribution of $n^{-1/2} X_n$ converges weakly almost surely to the standard semi-circle law. Using a F\"{u}redi-Koml\'{o}s-type high moment analysis, we show that the largest eigenvalue $\lambda_1(n^{-1/2} X_n)$ of $n^{-1/2} X_n$ converges almost surely to $2$. This result is essentially optimal in the sense that one cannot take $\varepsilon = 0$ and still obtain an almost sure limit of $2$. We also derive Gaussian fluctuation results for the largest eigenvalue in the case where the entries have a common non-zero mean. Let $Y_n = X_n + \frac{\lambda}{\sqrt{n}}\mathbf{1} \mathbf{1}^\top$. When $\varepsilon \ge 1$ and $\lambda \gg n^{1/4}$, we show that $$n^{1/2}\bigg(\lambda_1(n^{-1/2} Y_n) - \lambda - \frac{1}{\lambda}\bigg) \xrightarrow{d} \sqrt{2} Z,$$ where $Z$ is a standard Gaussian. On the other hand, when $0 < \varepsilon < 1$, we have $\mathrm{Var}(\frac{1}{n}\sum_{i, j}X_{ij}) = O(n^{1 - \varepsilon})$. Assuming that $\mathrm{Var}(\frac{1}{n}\sum_{i, j} X_{ij}) = \sigma^2 n^{1 - \varepsilon} (1 + o(1))$, if $\lambda \gg n^{\varepsilon/4}$, then we have $$n^{\varepsilon/2}\bigg(\lambda_1(n^{-1/2} Y_n) - \lambda - \frac{1}{\lambda}\bigg) \xrightarrow{d} \sigma Z.$$ While the ranges of $\lambda$ in these fluctuation results are certainly not optimal, a striking aspect is that different scalings are required in the two regimes $0 < \varepsilon < 1$ and $\varepsilon \ge 1$.