1. Random symmetric matrices: rank distribution and irreducibility of the characteristic polynomial
- Author
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Ferber, Asaf, Jain, Vishesh, Sah, Ashwin, and Sawhney, Mehtaab
- Subjects
Mathematics - Number Theory ,General Mathematics ,Probability (math.PR) ,FOS: Mathematics ,Number Theory (math.NT) ,Mathematics - Probability - Abstract
Conditional on the extended Riemann hypothesis, we show that with high probability, the characteristic polynomial of a random symmetric $\{\pm 1\}$-matrix is irreducible. This addresses a question raised by Eberhard in recent work. The main innovation in our work is establishing sharp estimates regarding the rank distribution of symmetric random $\{\pm 1\}$-matrices over $\mathbb{F}_p$ for primes $2 < p \leq \exp(O(n^{1/4}))$. Previously, such estimates were available only for $p = o(n^{1/8})$. At the heart of our proof is a way to combine multiple inverse Littlewood--Offord-type results to control the contribution to singularity-type events of vectors in $\mathbb{F}_p^{n}$ with anticoncentration at least $1/p + ��(1/p^2)$. Previously, inverse Littlewood--Offord-type results only allowed control over vectors with anticoncentration at least $C/p$ for some large constant $C > 1$., 12 pages; comments welcome!
- Published
- 2022