Symmetry Transitions in Random Matrix Theory & L-functions

Abstract

We compute the moments of the characteristic polynomials of random orthogonal and symplectic matrices, defined by averages with respect to Haar measure on SO(2N) and USp(2N), to leading order as N → ∞, on the unit circle as functions of the angle θ measured from one of the two symmetry points in the eigenvalue spectrum \({\{\exp(\pm i \theta_n)\}_{1\le n \le N}}\). Our results extend previous formulae that relate just to the symmetry points, i.e. to θ = 0. Local spectral statistics are expected to converge to those of random unitary matrices in the limit as N → ∞ when θ is fixed, and to show a transition from the orthogonal or symplectic to the unitary forms on the scale of the mean eigenvalue spacing: if θ = πy/N they become functions of y in the limit when N → ∞. We verify that this is true for the spectral two-point correlation function, but show that it is not true for the moments of the characteristic polynomials, for which the leading order asymptotic approximation is a function of θ rather than y. Symmetry points therefore influence the moments asymptotically far away on the scale of the mean eigenvalue spacing. We also investigate the moments of the logarithms of the characteristic polynomials in the same context. The moments of the characteristic polynomials of random matrices are conjectured to be related to the moments of families of L-functions. Previously, moments at the symmetry point θ = 0 have been related to the moments of families of L-functions evaluated at the centre of the critical strip. Our results motivate general conjectures for the moments of orthogonal and symplectic families of L-functions evaluated at a fixed height t up the critical line. These conjectures suggest that the symmetry of the non-trivial zeros of the L-functions influences the moments asymptotically far, on the scale of the mean zero spacing, from the centre of the critical strip. We verify that the second moments of real quadratic Dirichlet L-functions and a family of automorphic L-functions are consistent with our conjectures.