Random matrices, fermions, collective fields, and universality

Abstract

We first relate the random matrix model to a Fokker-Planck Hamiltonian system, such that the correlation functions of the model are expressed as the vacuum expectation values of equal-time products of density operators. We then analyze the universality of the random matrix model by solving the Focker-Planck Hamiltonian system for large N. We use two equivalent methods to do this, namely the method of relating it to a system of interacting fermions in one space dimension and the method of collective fields for large N matrix quantum mechanics. The final result using both these methods is the same Hamiltonian system of chiral bosons on a circle, which manifestly exhibits the universality of the random matrix model.