{"paper":{"title":"Fixed-order PCA: Theory for Overestimated Factor Models","license":"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":["econ.EM","stat.TH"],"primary_cat":"math.ST","authors_text":"Dacheng Xiu, Wanjie Wang, Xin Tong, Yuan Liao","submitted_at":"2026-05-18T14:17:49Z","abstract_excerpt":"We develop asymptotic theory for principal component analysis (PCA) of a high-dimensional factor model in which the working dimension $R$ is fixed and only required to satisfy $R \\ge r$, where $r$ is the true number of factors. Building on anisotropic local laws from random matrix theory, we show that the ``extra'' empirical eigencomponents beyond the $r$-th are asymptotically noise-governed, incoherent, and nearly orthogonal to the factor loadings. We introduce two rotations, an expanded $r\\times R$ map $H'$ and a compressed $R\\times r$ map $H^{+}$, and establish consistency of the estimated "},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2605.18448","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2605.18448/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}