Finite Free Convolution: Infinitesimal Distributions

Abstract: Additive and multiplicative finite free convolutions are operations on the set of polynomials with real roots, whose empirical distributions are known to approximate free additive and multiplicative convolutions, as the degree $d$ converges to infinity. In this paper, we study these approximations in finer detail, focusing on corrections (or fluctuations) up to order $1/d$, namely their infinitesimal distribution. By studying how the infinitesimal behavior of the moments relates to the infinitesimal behavior of the cumulants we are able to determine how the infinitesimal distributions changes under the additive and multiplicative finite free convolutions. It is worth mentioning that these operations do not correspond to the infinitesimal free additive and multiplicative convolutions that has been studied before, but in the additive case we provide an explicit connection using subordination functions. We give several examples and applications, including an explicit formula to compute the effect of repeated differentiation on the infinitesimal distribution.