Eigenvalue curves of asymmetric tridiagonal random matrices (Q1591766)

The paper gives a detailed analysis of the limiting behaviour of the spectrum of tridiagonal matrices with i.i.d. real entries and periodic boundary conditions, as the size goes to infinity. It is shown that the limit distribution is supported by curves in \(\mathbb{C}\), and equations for these curves are determined. In particular, conditions on the parameters of the distribution of the random variables are obtained to decide whether the asymptotic spectrum is real, or whether it is non-real. These problems arise from the study of discrete random Schrödinger operators with imaginary vector potentials in dimension one.