The asymptotic probability that a random biased matrix is invertible (Q2640667)

The authors present the following: Let \(q=p^ e\) be a power of a prime. Suppose that there is a probability distribution on GF(q) not concentrated on any proper affine subspace of GF(q) regarded as a vector space over its prime subfield GF(p). Let M be a random n by n matrix whose entries are chosen independently from the given distribution and let \(A_ n\) be the probability that M is invertible. Then it is shown that \(\lim_{n\to \infty}A_ n=\prod^{\infty}_{i=1}(1-1/q^ i).\) The independence of the entries of the matrix plays a role but can obviously be replaced by other conditions on more general distributions.