English

Quantitative Universality for the Largest Eigenvalue of Sample Covariance Matrices

Probability 2019-12-12 v1 Statistics Theory Statistics Theory

Abstract

We prove the first explicit rate of convergence to the Tracy-Widom distribution for the fluctuation of the largest eigenvalue of sample covariance matrices that are not integrable. Our primary focus is matrices of type XX X^*X and the proof follows the Erd\"{o}s-Schlein-Yau dynamical method. We use a recent approach to the analysis of the Dyson Brownian motion from [5] to obtain a quantitative error estimate for the local relaxation flow at the edge. Together with a quantitative version of the Green function comparison theorem, this gives the rate of convergence. Combined with a result of Lee-Schnelli [26], some quantitative estimates also hold for more general separable sample covariance matrices XΣX X^* \Sigma X with general diagonal population Σ \Sigma .

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1912.05473,
  title  = {Quantitative Universality for the Largest Eigenvalue of Sample Covariance Matrices},
  author = {Haoyu Wang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1912.05473},
  year   = {2019}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T12:43:03.417Z