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Anthony Quas
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Determinant of a random row stochastic matrix

Does anyone know anything about the determinant of a random $n\times n$ row stochastic matrix? What I have in mind is that the rows are independently selected from the uniform distribution on the unit $(n-1)$-dimensional simplex: $x_1+\ldots+x_n=1$. I'm interested in upper (and lower) bounds on the expected absolute value of the determinant as a function of $n$.

Thanks for any references! I found something due to Nguyen for the random doubly stochastic matrices, but didn't see anything for the easier(?) singly stochastic case. If I understood the Nguyen result correctly, it suggests that the determinant should be something like $e^{-n/8}$?

Anthony Quas
  • 23.2k
  • 5
  • 63
  • 98