A chi-square test for dimensionality with non-Gaussian data

The classical theory for testing the null hypothesis that a set of canonical correlation coefficients is zero leads to a chi-square test under the assumption of multi-normality. The test has been used in the context of dimension reduction. In this paper, we study the limiting distribution of the test statistic without the normality assumption, and obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for the chi-square limiting distribution to hold. Implications of the result are also discussed for the problem of dimension reduction.