An impossibility result for Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling from micro-canonical bipartite graph ensembles

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Main Authors: Preti, Giulia, Morales, Gianmarco De Francisci, Riondato, Matteo
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Preti, Giulia
Morales, Gianmarco De Francisci
Riondato, Matteo
author_facet Preti, Giulia
Morales, Gianmarco De Francisci
Riondato, Matteo
contents Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms are commonly used to sample from graph ensembles. Two graphs are neighbors in the state space if one can be obtained from the other with only a few modifications, e.g., edge rewirings. For many common ensembles, e.g., those preserving the degree sequences of bipartite graphs, rewiring operations involving two edges are sufficient to create a fully-connected state space, and they can be performed efficiently. We show that, for ensembles of bipartite graphs with fixed degree sequences and number of butterflies (k2,2 bi-cliques), there is no universal constant c such that a rewiring of at most c edges at every step is sufficient for any such ensemble to be fully connected. Our proof relies on an explicit construction of a family of pairs of graphs with the same degree sequences and number of butterflies, with each pair indexed by a natural c, and such that any sequence of rewiring operations transforming one graph into the other must include at least one rewiring operation involving at least c edges. Whether rewiring these many edges is sufficient to guarantee the full connectivity of the state space of any such ensemble remains an open question. Our result implies the impossibility of developing efficient, graph-agnostic, MCMC algorithms for these ensembles, as the necessity to rewire an impractically large number of edges may hinder taking a step on the state space.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2308_10838
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An impossibility result for Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling from micro-canonical bipartite graph ensembles
Preti, Giulia
Morales, Gianmarco De Francisci
Riondato, Matteo
Social and Information Networks
Physics and Society
Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms are commonly used to sample from graph ensembles. Two graphs are neighbors in the state space if one can be obtained from the other with only a few modifications, e.g., edge rewirings. For many common ensembles, e.g., those preserving the degree sequences of bipartite graphs, rewiring operations involving two edges are sufficient to create a fully-connected state space, and they can be performed efficiently. We show that, for ensembles of bipartite graphs with fixed degree sequences and number of butterflies (k2,2 bi-cliques), there is no universal constant c such that a rewiring of at most c edges at every step is sufficient for any such ensemble to be fully connected. Our proof relies on an explicit construction of a family of pairs of graphs with the same degree sequences and number of butterflies, with each pair indexed by a natural c, and such that any sequence of rewiring operations transforming one graph into the other must include at least one rewiring operation involving at least c edges. Whether rewiring these many edges is sufficient to guarantee the full connectivity of the state space of any such ensemble remains an open question. Our result implies the impossibility of developing efficient, graph-agnostic, MCMC algorithms for these ensembles, as the necessity to rewire an impractically large number of edges may hinder taking a step on the state space.
title An impossibility result for Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling from micro-canonical bipartite graph ensembles
topic Social and Information Networks
Physics and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.10838