In mathematics, a determinantal point process is a stochastic point process, the probability distribution of which is characterized as a determinant of some function. They are suited for modelling global negative correlations, and for efficient algorithms of sampling, marginalization, conditioning, and other inference tasks. Such processes arise as important tools in random matrix theory, combinatorics, physics, [1] machine learning, [2] and wireless network modeling. [3] [4] [5]
Consider some positively charged particles confined in a 1-dimensional box . Due to electrostatic repulsion, the locations of the charged particles are negatively correlated. That is, if one particle is in a small segment , then that makes the other particles less likely to be in the same set. The strength of repulsion between two particles at locations can be characterized by a function .
Let be a locally compact Polish space and be a Radon measure on . In most concrete applications, these are Euclidean space with its Lebesgue measure. A kernel function is a measurable function .
We say that is a determinantal point process on with kernel if it is a simple point process on with a joint intensity or correlation function (which is the density of its factorial moment measure) given by
for every n ≥ 1 and x1, ..., xn ∈ Λ. [6]
The following two conditions are necessary and sufficient for the existence of a determinantal random point process with intensities ρk.
A sufficient condition for the uniqueness of a determinantal random process with joint intensities ρk is for every bounded Borel A ⊆ Λ. [7]
The eigenvalues of a random m × m Hermitian matrix drawn from the Gaussian unitary ensemble (GUE) form a determinantal point process on with kernel
where is the th oscillator wave function defined by
and is the th Hermite polynomial. [8]
The Airy process is governed by the so called extended Airy kernel which is a generalization of the Airy kernel functionwhere is the Airy function. This process arises from rescaled eigenvalues near the spectral edge of the Gaussian Unitary Ensemble. [9]
The poissonized Plancherel measure on integer partition (and therefore on Young diagramss) plays an important role in the study of the longest increasing subsequence of a random permutation. The point process corresponding to a random Young diagram, expressed in modified Frobenius coordinates, is a determinantal point process on + 1⁄2 with the discrete Bessel kernel, given by:
where For J the Bessel function of the first kind, and θ the mean used in poissonization. [10]
This serves as an example of a well-defined determinantal point process with non-Hermitian kernel (although its restriction to the positive and negative semi-axis is Hermitian). [7]
Let G be a finite, undirected, connected graph, with edge set E. Define Ie:E → ℓ2(E) as follows: first choose some arbitrary set of orientations for the edges E, and for each resulting, oriented edge e, define Ie to be the projection of a unit flow along e onto the subspace of ℓ2(E) spanned by star flows. [11] Then the uniformly random spanning tree of G is a determinantal point process on E, with kernel