Let $n$ be a large integer and $M_n$ be a random $n$ by $n$ matrix whose entries are i.i.d. Bernoulli random variables (each entry is $\pm 1$ with probability 1/2). We show that the probability that $M_n$ is singular is at most $(3/4 +o(1))^n$, improving an earlier estimate of Kahn, Komlós and Szemerédi, as well as earlier work by the authors. The key new ingredient is the applications of Freiman type inverse theorems and other tools from additive combinatorics.
A lonesum matrix is a matrix that can be uniquely reconstructed from its row and column sums. Kaneko defined the poly-Bernoulli numbers $B_m^{(n)}$ by a generating function, and Brewbaker computed the number of binary lonesum $m\times n$-matrices and showed that this number coincides with the poly-Bernoulli number $B_m^{(-n)}$. We compute the number of $q$-ary lonesum $m\times n$-matrices, and then provide generalized Kaneko's formulas by using the generating function for the number of $q$-ary lonesum $m\times n$-matrices. In addition, we define two types of $q$-ary lonesum matrices that are c…
For each $n$, let $M_n$ be an $n\times n$ random matrix with independent $\pm 1$ entries. We show that ${\mathbb P}\{\mbox{$M_n$ is singular}\}=(1/2+o_n(1))^n$, which settles an old problem. Some generalizations are considered.
We show that the permanent of an $n \times n$ matrix with iid Bernoulli entries $\pm 1$ is of magnitude $n^{({1/2}+o(1))n}$ with probability $1-o(1)$. In particular, it is almost surely non-zero.
We prove a lower bound expansion on the probability that a random $\pm 1$ matrix is singular, and conjecture that such expansions govern the actual probability of singularity. These expansions are based on naming the most likely, second most likely, and so on, ways that a Bernoulli matrix can be singular; the most likely way is to have a null vector of the form $e_i \pm e_j$, which corresponds to the integer partition 11, with two parts of size 1. The second most likely way is to have a null vector of the form $e_i \pm e_j \pm e_k \pm e_\ell$, which corresponds to the partition 1111. The fifth…
It is shown that a random $(0,1)$ matrix whose rows are independent random vectors of exactly $n/2$ zero components is non-singular with probability $1-O(n^{-C})$ for any $C>0$. The proof uses a non-standard inverse-type Littlewood-Offord result.
In this note we describe the singular locus of diagonally-dominant Hermitian matrices with nonnegative diagonal entries over the reals, the complex numbers, and the quaternions. This yields explicit expressions for the probability that such matrices, chosen at random, are singular. For instance, in the case of the identity $n \times n$ matrix perturbed by a symmetric, zero-diagonal, $\{\pm 1/(n-1)\}$-Bernoulli matrix, this probability turns out to be equal to $2^{-(n-1)(n-2)/2}$. As a corollary, we find that the probability for a $n\times n$ symmetric $\{\pm 1\}$-Bernoulli matrix to have eigen…
Consider a random $n\times n$ zero-one matrix with "density" $p$, sampled according to one of the following two models: either every entry is independently taken to be one with probability $p$ (the "Bernoulli" model), or each row is independently uniformly sampled from the set of all length-$n$ zero-one vectors with exactly $pn$ ones (the "combinatorial" model). We give simple proofs of the (essentially best-possible) fact that in both models, if $\min(p,1-p)\geq (1+\varepsilon)\log n/n$ for any constant $\varepsilon>0$, then our random matrix is nonsingular with probability $1-o(1)$. In the B…
The invertibility of LCM matrices and their Hadamard powers have been studied a lot over the years by many authors. Bourque and Ligh conjectured in 1992 that the LCM matrix $[S]=[[x_i, x_j]]$ on any GCD closed set $S=\{x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_n\}$ is invertible, but in 1997 this was proven false. However, currently there are many open conjectures concerning LCM matrices and their Hadamard powers presented by Hong. In this paper we utilize lattice-theoretic structures and the Möbius function to explain the singularity of classical LCM matrices and their Hadamard powers. At the same time we end up d…
Let $p \in (0,1/2)$ be fixed, and let $B_n(p)$ be an $n\times n$ random matrix with i.i.d. Bernoulli random variables with mean $p$. We show that for all $t \ge 0$, \[\mathbb{P}[s_n(B_n(p)) \le tn^{-1/2}] \le C_p t + 2n(1-p)^{n} + C_p (1-p-ε_p)^{n},\] where $s_n(B_n(p))$ denotes the least singular value of $B_n(p)$ and $C_p, ε_p > 0$ are constants depending only on $p$. In particular, \[\mathbb{P}[B_{n}(p) \text{ is singular}] = 2n(1-p)^{n} + C_{p}(1-p-ε_p)^{n},\] which confirms a conjecture of Litvak and Tikhomirov. We also confirm a conjecture of Nguyen by showing that if $Q_{n}$ is an $n\ti…
Let $M_n$ be an $n$ by $n$ random matrix where each entry is +1 or -1 independently with probability 1/2. Our main result implies that the probability that $M_n$ is singular is at most $(1/\sqrt{2} + o(1))^n$, improving on the previous best upper bound of $(3/4 + o(1))^n$ proven by Tao and Vu in arXiv:math/0501313v2. This paper follows a similar approach to the Tao and Vu result, including using a variant of their structure theorem. We also extend this type of exponential upper bound on the probability that a random matrix is singular to a large class of discrete random matrices taking values …
In this paper we give a simple, short, and self-contained proof for a non-trivial upper bound on the probability that a random $\pm 1$ symmetric matrix is singular.
We study matrices which transform the sequence of Fibonacci or Lucas polynomials with even index to those with odd index and vice versa. They turn out to be intimately related to generalized Stirling numbers and to Bernoulli, Genocchi and tangent numbers and give rise to various identities between these numbers. There is also a close connection with the Akiyama-Tanigawa algorithm.
This papers contains two results concerning random $n \times n$ Bernoulli matrices. First, we show that with probability tending to one the determinant has absolute value $\sqrt {n!} \exp(O(\sqrt(n log n)))$. Next, we prove a new upper bound $.939^n$ on the probability that the matrix is singular. We also give some generalizations to other random matrix models.
Let $M_n$ be drawn uniformly from all $\pm 1$ symmetric $n \times n$ matrices. We show that the probability that $M_n$ is singular is at most $\exp(-c(n\log n)^{1/2})$, which represents a natural barrier in recent approaches to this problem. In addition to improving on the best-known previous bound of Campos, Mattos, Morris and Morrison of $\exp(-c n^{1/2})$ on the singularity probability, our method is different and considerably simpler.
Let $A$ be an $n \times n$ random matrix with iid entries over a finite field of order $q$. Suppose that the entries do not take values in any additive coset of the field with probability greater than $1 - α$ for some fixed $0 < α< 1$. We show that the singularity probability converges to the uniform limit with an exponentially small error depending only on $α$. We also show that the distribution of the determinant of $A$ converges to its limiting distribution at an exponential rate.
Let $M_n$ denote a random symmetric $n$ by $n$ matrix, whose upper diagonal entries are iid Bernoulli random variables (which take value -1 and 1 with probability 1/2). Improving the earlier result by Costello, Tao and Vu, we show that $M_n$ is non-singular with probability $1-O(n^{-C})$ for any positive constant $C$. The proof uses an inverse Littlewood-Offord result for quadratic forms, which is of interest of its own.
We give a generating function for the number of pairs of $n\times n$ matrices $(A, B)$ over a finite field that are mutually annihilating, namely, $AB=BA=0$. This generating function can be viewed as a singular analogue of a series considered by Cohen and Lenstra. We show that this generating function has a factorization that allows it to be meromorphically extended to the entire complex plane. We also use it to count pairs of mutually annihilating nilpotent matrices. This work is essentially a study of the motivic aspects about the variety of modules over $\mathbb C[u,v]/(uv)$ as well as the …
We provide bivariate asymptotics for the poly-Bernoulli numbers, a combinatorial array that enumerates lonesum matrices, using the methods of Analytic Combinatorics in Several Variables (ACSV). For the diagonal asymptotic (i.e., for the special case of square lonesum matrices) we present an alternative proof based on Parseval's identity. In addition, we provide an application in Algebraic Statistics on the asymptotic ML-degree of the bivariate multinomial missing data problem, and we strengthen an existing result on asymptotic enumeration of permutations having a specified excedance set.
Let $M_n$ be a random $n\times n$ matrix with i.i.d. $\text{Bernoulli}(1/2)$ entries. We show that for fixed $k\ge 1$, \[\lim_{n\to \infty}\frac{1}{n}\log_2\mathbb{P}[\text{corank }M_n\ge k] = -k.\]
Let $M_n$ denote a random symmetric $n \times n$ matrix whose upper diagonal entries are independent and identically distributed Bernoulli random variables (which take values $1$ and $-1$ with probability $1/2$ each). It is widely conjectured that $M_n$ is singular with probability at most $(2+o(1))^{-n}$. On the other hand, the best known upper bound on the singularity probability of $M_n$, due to Vershynin (2011), is $2^{-n^c}$, for some unspecified small constant $c > 0$. This improves on a polynomial singularity bound due to Costello, Tao, and Vu (2005), and a bound of Nguyen (2011) showin…
A well-known conjecture states that a random symmetric $n \times n$ matrix with entries in $\{-1,1\}$ is singular with probability $Θ\big( n^2 2^{-n} \big)$. In this paper we prove that the probability of this event is at most $\exp\big( - Ω( \sqrt{n} ) \big)$, improving the best known bound of $\exp\big( - Ω( n^{1/4} \sqrt{\log n} ) \big)$, which was obtained recently by Ferber and Jain. The main new ingredient is an inverse Littlewood-Offord theorem in $\mathbb{Z}_p^n$ that applies under very mild conditions, whose statement is inspired by the method of hypergraph containers.
Let $ξ$ be a non-constant real-valued random variable with finite support, and let $M_{n}(ξ)$ denote an $n\times n$ random matrix with entries that are independent copies of $ξ$. For $ξ$ which is not uniform on its support, we show that \begin{align*} \mathbb{P}[M_{n}(ξ)\text{ is singular}] &= \mathbb{P}[\text{zero row or column}] + (1+o_n(1))\mathbb{P}[\text{two equal (up to sign) rows or columns}], \end{align*} thereby confirming a folklore conjecture. As special cases, we obtain: (1) For $ξ= \text{Bernoulli}(p)$ with fixed $p \in (0,1/2)$, \[\mathbb{P}[M_{n}(ξ)\text{ is singular}] = 2n(1-p)…
We prove that the (non-symmetric) adjacency matrix of a uniform random $d$-regular directed graph on $n$ vertices is asymptotically almost surely invertible, assuming $\min(d,n-d)\ge C\log^2n$ for a sufficiently large constant $C>0$. The proof makes use of a coupling of random regular digraphs formed by "shuffling" the neighborhood of a pair of vertices, as well as concentration results for the distribution of edges recently obtained by the author (arXiv:1410.5595). We also apply our general approach to prove a.a.s.\ invertibility of Hadamard products $Σ\circ Ξ$, where $Ξ$ is a matrix of iid u…
Starting from an n-by-n matrix of zeros, choose uniformly random zero entries and change them to ones, one-at-a-time, until the matrix becomes invertible. We show that with probability tending to one as n tends to infinity, this occurs at the very moment the last zero row or zero column disappears. We prove a related result for random symmetric Bernoulli matrices, and give quantitative bounds for some related problems. These results extend earlier work by Costello and Vu [arXiv:math/0606414].
Two results concerning the number of threshold functions $P(2, n)$ and the probability ${\mathbb P}_n$ that a random $n\times n$ Bernoulli matrix is singular are established. We introduce a supermodular function $η^{\bigstar}_n : 2^{{\bf RP}^n}_{fin} \to \mathbb{Z}_{\geq 0},$ defined on finite subsets of ${\bf RP}^n,$ that allows us to obtain a lower bound for $P(2, n)$ in terms of ${\mathbb P}_{n+1}.$ This, together with L.Schläfli's famous upper bound, give us asymptotics $$P(2, n) \thicksim 2 {2^n-1 \choose n},\quad n\to \infty.$$ Also, the validity of the long-standing conjecture concernin…
Let ${\mathcal D}_{n,d}$ be the set of all $d$-regular directed graphs on $n$ vertices. Let $G$ be a graph chosen uniformly at random from ${\mathcal D}_{n,d}$ and $M$ be its adjacency matrix. We show that $M$ is invertible with probability at least $1-C\ln^{3} d/\sqrt{d}$ for $C\leq d\leq cn/\ln^2 n$, where $c, C$ are positive absolute constants. To this end, we establish a few properties of $d$-regular directed graphs. One of them, a Littlewood-Offord type anti-concentration property, is of independent interest. Let $J$ be a subset of vertices of $G$ with $|J|\approx n/d$. Let $δ_i$ be the i…
A sequential importance sampling algorithm is developed for the distribution that results when a matrix of independent, but not identically distributed, Bernoulli random variables is conditioned on a given sequence of row and column sums. This conditional distribution arises in a variety of applications and includes as a special case the uniform distribution over zero-one tables with specified margins. The algorithm uses dynamic programming to combine hard margin constraints, combinatorial approximations, and additional non-uniform weighting in a principled way to give state-of-the-art results…
Let $A$ be drawn uniformly at random from the set of all $n\times n$ symmetric matrices with entries in $\{-1,1\}$. We show that \[ \mathbb{P}( \det(A) = 0 ) \leq e^{-cn},\] where $c>0$ is an absolute constant, thereby resolving a well-known conjecture.
Let $M_n$ be a class of symmetric sparse random matrices, with independent entries $M_{ij} = δ_{ij} ξ_{ij}$ for $i \leq j$. $δ_{ij}$ are i.i.d. Bernoulli random variables taking the value $1$ with probability $p \geq n^{-1+δ}$ for any constant $δ> 0$ and $ξ_{ij}$ are i.i.d. centered, subgaussian random variables. We show that with high probability this class of random matrices has simple spectrum (i.e. the eigenvalues appear with multiplicity one). We can slightly modify our proof to show that the adjacency matrix of a sparse Erdős-Rényi graph has simple spectrum for $n^{-1+δ} \leq p \leq 1- n…
A recent approach to the Beck-Fiala conjecture, a fundamental problem in combinatorics, has been to understand when random integer matrices have constant discrepancy. We give a complete answer to this question for two natural models: matrices with Bernoulli or Poisson entries. For Poisson matrices, we further characterize the discrepancy for any rectangular aspect ratio. These results give sharp answers to questions of Hoberg and Rothvoss (SODA 2019) and Franks and Saks (Random Structures Algorithms 2020). Our main tool is a conditional second moment method combined with Stein's method of exch…
Consider a random sum $η_1 v_1 + ... + η_n v_n$, where $η_1,...,η_n$ are i.i.d. random signs and $v_1,...,v_n$ are integers. The Littlewood-Offord problem asks to maximize concentration probabilities such as $¶(η_1 v_1 + ... + η_n v_n = 0)$ subject to various hypotheses on the $v_1,...,v_n$. In this paper we develop an \emph{inverse} Littlewood-Offord theorem (somewhat in the spirit of Freiman's inverse sumset theorem), which starts with the hypothesis that a concentration probability is large, and concludes that almost all of the $v_1,...,v_n$ are efficiently contained in an arithmetic progre…
