English

Gumbel Central Limit Theorem for Max-Min and Min-Max

Statistical Mechanics 2019-08-28 v3

Abstract

The Max-Min and Min-Max of matrices arise prevalently in science and engineering. However, in many real-world situations the computation of the Max-Min and Min-Max is challenging as matrices are large and full information about their entries is lacking. Here we take a statistical-physics approach and establish limit-laws -- akin to the Central Limit Theorem -- for the Max-Min and Min-Max of large random matrices. The limit-laws intertwine random-matrix theory and extreme-value theory, couple the matrix-dimensions geometrically, and assert that Gumbel statistics emerge irrespective of the matrix-entries' distribution. Due to their generality and universality, as well as their practicality, these novel results are expected to have a host of applications in the physical sciences and beyond.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1808.08423,
  title  = {Gumbel Central Limit Theorem for Max-Min and Min-Max},
  author = {Iddo Eliazar and Ralf Metzler and Shlomi Reuveni},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1808.08423},
  year   = {2019}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T03:43:42.951Z