Progress on the study of the Ginibre ensembles I: GinUE

The Ginibre unitary ensemble (GinUE) consists of $N \times N$ random matrices with independent complex standard Gaussian entries. This was introduced in 1965 by Ginbre, who showed that the eigenvalues form a determinantal point process with an explicit correlation kernel, and after scaling they are supported on the unit disk with constant density. For some time now it has been appreciated that GinUE has a fundamental place within random matrix theory, both for its applications and for the richness of its theory. Here we review the progress on a number of themes relating to the study of GinUE. These are eigenvalue probability density functions and correlation functions, fluctuation formulas, sum rules and asymptotic behaviours of correlation functions, and normal matrix models. We discuss too applications in quantum many body physics and quantum chaos, and give an account of some statistical properties of the eigenvectors.