The singularity probability of a random symmetric matrix is exponentially small

Abstract

Let $A$ be drawn uniformly at random from the set of all $n\times n$ symmetric matrices with entries in $\{-1,1\}$. We show that \[ \mathbb{P}( \det(A) = 0 ) \leq e^{-cn},\] where $c>0$ is an absolute constant, thereby resolving a well-known conjecture.

51 pages. Sections 3+4 split up and reorganized and proof sketch expanded