On the relation between orthogonal, symplectic and unitary matrix ensembles

Abstract

For the unitary ensembles of $N\times N$ Hermitian matrices associated with a weight function $w$ there is a kernel, expressible in terms of the polynomials orthogonal with respect to the weight function, which plays an important role. For the orthogonal and symplectic ensembles of Hermitian matrices there are $2\times2$ matrix kernels, usually constructed using skew-orthogonal polynomials, which play an analogous role. These matrix kernels are determined by their upper left-hand entries. We derive formulas expressing these entries in terms of the scalar kernel for the corresponding unitary ensembles. We also show that whenever $w'/w$ is a rational function the entries are equal to the scalar kernel plus some extra terms whose number equals the order of $w'/w$. General formulas are obtained for these extra terms. We do not use skew-orthogonal polynomials in the derivations.