Exact Statistical Characterization of $2\times 2$ Gram Matrices with Arbitrary Variance Profile

This paper is concerned with the statistical properties of the Gram matrix W = HH^†, where H is a 2 × 2 complex central Gaussian matrix whose elements have arbitrary variances. With such arbitrary variance profile, this random matrix model fundamentally departs from classical Wishart models and presents a significant challenge as the classical analytical toolbox no longer directly applies. We derive new exact expressions for the distribution of W and that of its eigenvalues by means of an explicit parameterization of the group of unitary matrices. Our results yield remarkably simple expressions, which are further leveraged to study the outage data rate of a dual-antenna communication system under different variance profiles.