Sharpness of the universal capacity bound for amplified determinants
For a finite tuple of square complex matrices, let F_infinity be the supremum of the normalized determinant over all matrix amplifications and Hilbert-Schmidt unit coefficient tuples, and let C be the maximum operator capacity over coefficient covariances of trace one. The previously established comparison C/e <= F_infinity <= C has the optimal universal constant: we construct finite tuples with C/F_infinity arbitrarily close to e. The tuples may have exactly identity Hilbert-Schmidt Gram matrix; their capacities tend to one and their amplified determinant values tend to e^(-1). The construction uses independent complex Gaussian coefficients with a fixed number of coefficients before the matrix dimension tends to infinity. A balance property of determinant maximizers makes polynomial moment comparison uniform over every amplification. A separate cut criterion turns Gaussian expansion estimates into a dimension-independent capacity lower bound. For each fixed number of Gaussian coefficients, scalar and arbitrarily amplified optima both converge in probability to e^(-1).
Working paper. Citable, but not yet screened for the AIRR collection.