Uniform regular weighted graphs with large degree: Wigner's law, asymptotic freeness and graphons limit

Abstract: For each $N\geq 1$, let $G_N$ be a simple random graph on the set of vertices $[N]={1,2, ..., N}$, which is invariant by relabeling of the vertices. The asymptotic behavior as $N$ goes to infinity of correlation functions: $$ \mathfrak C_N(T)= \mathbb E\bigg[ \prod_{(i,j) \in T} \Big(\mathbf 1_{\big({i,j} \in G_N \big)} - \mathbb P({i,j} \in G_N) \Big)\bigg], \ T \subset [N]^2 \textrm{finite}$$ furnishes informations on the asymptotic spectral properties of the adjacency matrix $A_N$ of $G_N$. Denote by $d_N = N\times \mathbb P({i,j} \in G_N) $ and assume $d_N, N-d_N\underset{N \rightarrow \infty}{\longrightarrow} \infty$. If $\mathfrak C_N(T) =\big(\frac{d_N}N\big)^{|T|} \times O\big(d_N^{-\frac {|T|}2}\big)$ for any $T$, the standardized empirical eigenvalue distribution of $A_N$ converges in expectation to the semicircular law and the matrix satisfies asymptotic freeness properties in the sense of free probability theory. We provide such estimates for uniform $d_N$-regular graphs $G_{N,d_N}$, under the additional assumption that $|\frac N 2 - d_N- \eta \sqrt{d_N}| \underset{N \rightarrow \infty}{\longrightarrow} \infty$ for some $\eta>0$. Our method applies also for simple graphs whose edges are labelled by i.i.d. random variables.