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Thursday, November 19, 2015

Proof of a determinantal integration formula

While reading about random matrices I encountered the following formula in a blog post by Terence Tao.

If K(x,y) is such that
  1. dx K(x,x)=α 
  2. dy K(x,y)K(y,z)=K(x,z)
then dxn+1deti,jn+1(K(xi,xj))=(αn)deti,jn(K(xi,xj))
For simplicity I have written instead of R. This formula is used when calculating n-point functions in the Gaussian Unitary Ensemble (GUE). Tao gives a short proof of (1) based on induction and the Laplace expansion of determinants. In this post, I give a proof using integration over Grassmann variables. The reason I am interested in this alternative proof is that I want to compress the calculation of n-point functions in the GUE as much as possible.
The proof of (1) proceeds as follows. I express the determinant as a Gaussian integral over Grassmann variables deti,jn+1(K(xi,xj))=(n+1i=1dθidˉθi)exp(n+1i,j=1ˉθiK(xi,xj)θj)
The LHS of (1) is dxn+1(n+1i=1dθidˉθi)exp(ni,j=1ˉθiK(xi,xj)θj+X)
with X=ni=1ˉθiK(xi,xn+1)θn+1+nj=1ˉθn+1K(xn+1,xj)θj+ˉθn+1K(xn+1,xn+1)θn+1
I now perform the integration over θn+1,ˉθn+1. I therefore expand the exponential eX=(1+ni=1ˉθiK(xi,xn+1)θn+1)(1+nj=1ˉθn+1K(xn+1,xj)θj)(1+ˉθn+1K(xn+1,xn+1)θn+1)
Integrating over θn+1,ˉθn+1 picks the coefficient of ˉθn+1θn+1, this gives K(xn+1,xn+1)ni,j=1ˉθiK(xi,xn+1)K(xn+1,xj)θj
At this point I have LHS=dxn+1(ni=1dθidˉθi)exp(ni,j=1ˉθiK(xi,xj)θj)(K(xn+1,xn+1)ni,j=1ˉθiK(xi,xn+1)K(xn+1,xj)θj)
Integrating over xn+1 then gives LHS=(ni=1dθidˉθi)exp(ni,j=1ˉθiK(xi,xj)θj)(αni,j=1ˉθiK(xi,xj)θj)
I elaborate a bit on the second term: (ni=1dθidˉθi)exp(ni,j=1ˉθiK(xi,xj)θj)(ni,j=1ˉθiK(xi,xj)θj)=(ni=1dθidˉθi)1(n1)!(ni,j=1ˉθiK(xi,xj)θj)n1(ni,j=1ˉθiK(xi,xj)θj)=n(ni=1dθidˉθi)1n!(ni,j=1ˉθiK(xi,xj)θj)n=n(ni=1dθidˉθi)exp(ni,j=1ˉθiK(xi,xj)θj)
It follows that LHS=(ni=1dθidˉθi)exp(ni,j=1ˉθiK(xi,xj)θj)(αn)=(αn)deti,jn(K(xi,xj))

Further reading
  1. An introduction to integrating over Grassmann variables can be found in Path Integrals in Quantum Mechanics by Jean Zinn-Justin 
  2. Details and many formulas about integrating over Grassmann variables can also be found in appendix A in this paper.

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