In this paper, we prove a necessary and sufficient condition for the edge universality of sample covariance matrices with general population. We consider sample covariance matrices of the form $\mathcal Q = TX(TX)^{*}$, where $X$ is an $M_2\times N$ random matrix with $X_{ij}=N^{-1/2}q_{ij}$ such that $q_{ij}$ are $i.i.d.$ random variables with zero mean and unit variance, and $T$ is an $M_1 \times M_2$ deterministic matrix such that $T^* T$ is diagonal. We study the asymptotic behavior of the largest eigenvalues of $\mathcal Q$ when $M:=\min\{M_1,M_2\}$ and $N$ tend to infinity with $\lim_{N \to \infty} {N}/{M}=d \in (0, \infty)$. We prove that the Tracy-Widom law holds for the largest eigenvalue of $\mathcal Q$ if and only if $\lim_{s \rightarrow \infty}s^4 \mathbb{P}(\vert q_{ij} \vert \geq s)=0$ under mild assumptions of $T$. The necessity and sufficiency of this condition for the edge universality was first proved for Wigner matrices by Lee and Yin [34].

Let $K$ be a self-similar set satisfying the open set condition. Following Kaimanovich’s elegant idea, it has been proved that on the symbolic space $X$ of $K$ a natural augmented tree structure $E$ exists; it is hyperbolic, and the hyperbolic boundary $\partial_H X$ with the Gromov metric is H\"older equivalent to $K$. In this paper we consider certain reversible random walks with return ratio $0 < \lambda < 1$ on $(X,E)$. We show that the Martin boundary ${\mathcal M}$ can be identified with $\partial_H X$ and $K$. With this setup and a device of Silverstein, we obtain precise estimates of the Martin kernel and the Na\"im kernel in terms of the Gromov product. Moreover, the Naïm kernel turns out to be a jump kernel satisfying the estimate $\Theta (\xi,\eta) \asymp |\xi-\eta|^{-(\alpha+\beta)}$, where $\alpha$ is the Hausdorff dimension of $K$ and $\beta$ depends on $\lambda$. For suitable $\beta$, the kernel defines a regular non-local Dirichlet form on $K$. This extends the results of Kigami concerning random walks on certain trees with Cantor-type sets as boundaries.

No abstract uploaded!

A new non-conservative stochastic reaction–diffusion system in which two families of random walks in two adjacent domains interact near the interface is introduced and studied in this paper. Such a system can be used to model the transport of positive and negative charges in a solar cell or the population dynamics of two segregated species under competition. We show that in the macroscopic limit, the particle densities converge to the solution of a coupled nonlinear heat equations. For this, we first prove that propagation of chaos holds by establishing the uniqueness of a new BBGKY hierarchy. A local central limit theorem for reflected diffusions in bounded Lipschitz domains is also established as a crucial tool.

We develop a new method for deriving local laws for a large class of random matrices. It is applicable to many matrix models built from sums and products of deterministic or independent random matrices. In particular, it may be used to obtain local laws for matrix ensembles that are \emph{anisotropic} in the sense that their resolvents are well approximated by deterministic matrices that are not multiples of the identity. For definiteness, we present the method for sample covariance matrices of the form Q:=TXX∗T∗, where T is deterministic and X is random with independent entries. We prove that with high probability the resolvent of Q is close to a deterministic matrix, with an optimal error bound and down to optimal spectral scales. As an application, we prove the edge universality of Q by establishing the Tracy-Widom-Airy statistics of the eigenvalues of Q near the soft edges. This result applies in the single-cut and multi-cut cases. Further applications include the distribution of the eigenvectors and an analysis of the outliers and BBP-type phase transitions in finite-rank deformations; they will appear elsewhere. We also apply our method to Wigner matrices whose entries have arbitrary expectation, i.e. we consider W+A where W is a Wigner matrix and a Hermitian deterministic matrix. We prove the anisotropic local law for W+A and use it to establish edge universality.