Tests of Zero Correlation Using Modified RV Coefficient for High-Dimensional Vectors

Tests of zero correlation between two or more vectors with large dimension, possibly larger than the sample size, are considered when the data may not necessarily follow a normal distribution. A single-sample case for several vectors is first proposed, which is then extended to the common covariance matrix under the assumption of homogeneity across several independent populations. The test statistics are constructed using a recently proposed modification of the RV coefficient (a correlation coefficient for vector-valued random variables) for high-dimensional vectors. The accuracy of the tests is shown through simulations.