Abstract: | Let (X
jk
)
j,k ≥ 1 be i.i.d. complex random variables such that |X
jk
| is in the domain of attraction of an α-stable law, with 0 < α < 2. Our main result is a heavy tailed counterpart of Girko’s circular law. Namely, under some additional smoothness assumptions
on the law of X
jk
, we prove that there exist a deterministic sequence a
n
~ n
1/α
and a probability measure μ
α
on
\mathbbC{\mathbb{C}} depending only on α such that with probability one, the empirical distribution of the eigenvalues of the rescaled matrix (an-1Xjk)1 £ j,k £ n{(a_n^{-1}X_{jk})_{1\leq j,k\leq n}} converges weakly to μ
α
as n → ∞. Our approach combines Aldous & Steele’s objective method with Girko’s Hermitization using logarithmic potentials. The
underlying limiting object is defined on a bipartized version of Aldous’ Poisson Weighted Infinite Tree. Recursive relations
on the tree provide some properties of μ
α
. In contrast with the Hermitian case, we find that μ
α
is not heavy tailed. |