Rigidity and Edge Universality of Discrete $\beta$-Ensembles

TL;DR

This paper proves the edge universality and rigidity of discrete $eta$-ensembles, showing that extreme particle distributions converge to Tracy-Widom $eta$ distributions, including applications to Young diagram row lengths.

Contribution

First proof of Tracy-Widom $eta$ distribution universality in discrete $eta$-ensembles, extending continuous results and solving an open problem related to Young diagrams.

Findings

Particles are close to classical locations with optimal error bounds.

Extreme particle distributions converge to Tracy-Widom $eta$ distributions for $eta \,\geq\, 1$.

Application to Jack deformation of Plancherel measure confirms Tracy-Widom $eta$ convergence.

Abstract

We study discrete $\beta$-ensembles as introduced in [17]. We obtain rigidity estimates on the particle locations, i.e. with high probability, the particles are close to their classical locations with an optimal error estimate. We prove the edge universality of the discrete $\beta$-ensembles, i.e. for $\beta\geq 1$, the distribution of extreme particles converges to the Tracy-Widom $\beta$ distribution. As far as we know, this is the first proof of general Tracy-Widom $\beta$ distributions in the discrete setting. A special case of our main results implies that under the Jack deformation of the Plancherel measure, the distribution of the lengths of the first few rows in Young diagrams, converges to the Tracy-Widom $\beta$ distribution, which answers an open problem in [39]. Our proof relies on Nekrasov's (or loop) equations, a multiscale analysis and a comparison argument with continuous $\beta$-ensembles.