Canonical correlation coefficients of high-dimensional Gaussian vectors: finite rank case

Abstract

Consider a Gaussian vector $\mathbf{z}=(\mathbf{x}',\mathbf{y}')'$, consisting of two sub-vectors $\mathbf{x}$ and $\mathbf{y}$ with dimensions $p$ and $q$ respectively, where both $p$ and $q$ are proportional to the sample size $n$. Denote by $\Sigma_{\mathbf{u}\mathbf{v}}$ the population cross-covariance matrix of random vectors $\mathbf{u}$ and $\mathbf{v}$, and denote by $S_{\mathbf{u}\mathbf{v}}$ the sample counterpart. The canonical correlation coefficients between $\mathbf{x}$ and $\mathbf{y}$ are known as the square roots of the nonzero eigenvalues of the canonical correlation matrix $\Sigma_{\mathbf{x}\mathbf{x}}^{-1}\Sigma_{\mathbf{x}\mathbf{y}}\Sigma_{\mathbf{y}\mathbf{y}}^{-1}\Sigma_{\mathbf{y}\mathbf{x}}$. In this paper, we focus on the case that $\Sigma_{\mathbf{x}\mathbf{y}}$ is of finite rank $k$, i.e. there are $k$ nonzero canonical correlation coefficients, whose squares are denoted by $r_1\geq\cdots\geq r_k>0$. We study the sample counterparts of $r_i,i=1,\ldots,k$, i.e. the largest $k$ eigenvalues of the sample canonical correlation matrix $\S_{\mathbf{x}\mathbf{x}}^{-1}\S_{\mathbf{x}\mathbf{y}}\S_{\mathbf{y}\mathbf{y}}^{-1}\S_{\mathbf{y}\mathbf{x}}$, denoted by $\lambda_1\geq\cdots\geq \lambda_k$. We show that there exists a threshold $r_c\in(0,1)$, such that for each $i\in\{1,\ldots,k\}$, when $r_i\leq r_c$, $\lambda_i$ converges almost surely to the right edge of the limiting spectral distribution of the sample canonical correlation matrix, denoted by $d_{+}$. When $r_i>r_c$, $\lambda_i$ possesses an almost sure limit in $(d_{+},1]$. We also obtain the limiting distribution of $\lambda_i$'s under appropriate normalization. Specifically, $\lambda_i$ possesses Gaussian type fluctuation if $r_i>r_c$, and follows Tracy-Widom distribution if $r_i<r_c$. Some applications of our results are also discussed.