  This paper presents an analytical characterization of the ergodic capacity of
amplify-and-forward (AF) MIMO dual-hop relay channels, assuming that the
channel state information is available at the destination terminal only. In
contrast to prior results, our expressions apply for arbitrary numbers of
antennas and arbitrary relay configurations. We derive an expression for the
exact ergodic capacity, simplified closed-form expressions for the high SNR
regime, and tight closed-form upper and lower bounds. These results are made
possible to employing recent tools from finite-dimensional random matrix theory
to derive new closed-form expressions for various statistical properties of the
equivalent AF MIMO dual-hop relay channel, such as the distribution of an
unordered eigenvalue and certain random determinant properties. Based on the
analytical capacity expressions, we investigate the impact of the system and
channel characteristics, such as the antenna configuration and the relay power
gain. We also demonstrate a number of interesting relationships between the
dual-hop AF MIMO relay channel and conventional point-to-point MIMO channels in
various asymptotic regimes.
