BERRY–ESSEEN BOUND AND LOCAL LIMIT THEOREM FOR THE COEFFICIENTS OF PRODUCTS OF RANDOM MATRICES

Let $\mu $ be a probability measure on $\mathrm {GL}_d(\mathbb {R})$ , and denote by $S_n:= g_n \cdots g_1$ the associated random matrix product, where $g_j$ are i.i.d. with law $\mu $ . Under the assumptions that $\mu $ has a finite exponential moment and generates a proximal and strongly irreducible semigroup, we prove a Berry–Esseen bound with the optimal rate $O(1/\sqrt n)$ for the coefficients of $S_n$ , settling a long-standing question considered since the fundamental work of Guivarc’h and Raugi. The local limit theorem for the coefficients is also obtained, complementing a recent partial result of Grama, Quint and Xiao.