On Densest $k$-Subgraph Mining and Diagonal Loading: Optimization Landscape and Finite-Step Exact Convergence Analysis

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Hauptverfasser: Lu, Qiheng, Sidiropoulos, Nicholas D., Konar, Aritra
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Lu, Qiheng
Sidiropoulos, Nicholas D.
Konar, Aritra
author_facet Lu, Qiheng
Sidiropoulos, Nicholas D.
Konar, Aritra
contents The Densest $k$-Subgraph (D$k$S) is a fundamental combinatorial problem known for its theoretical hardness and breadth of applications. Recently, Lu et al. (AAAI 2025) introduced a penalty-based non-convex relaxation that achieves promising empirical performance; however, a rigorous theoretical understanding of its success remains unclear. In this work, we bridge this gap by providing a comprehensive theoretical analysis. We first establish the tightness of the relaxation, ensuring that the global maximum values of the original combinatorial problem and the relaxed problem coincide. Then we reveal the benign geometry of the optimization landscape by proving a strict dichotomy of stationary points: all integral stationary points are local maximizers, whereas all non-integral stationary points are strict saddles with explicit positive curvature. We propose a saddle-escaping Frank--Wolfe algorithm and prove that it achieves exact convergence to an integral local maximizer in a finite number of steps.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_07388
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On Densest $k$-Subgraph Mining and Diagonal Loading: Optimization Landscape and Finite-Step Exact Convergence Analysis
Lu, Qiheng
Sidiropoulos, Nicholas D.
Konar, Aritra
Social and Information Networks
Data Structures and Algorithms
The Densest $k$-Subgraph (D$k$S) is a fundamental combinatorial problem known for its theoretical hardness and breadth of applications. Recently, Lu et al. (AAAI 2025) introduced a penalty-based non-convex relaxation that achieves promising empirical performance; however, a rigorous theoretical understanding of its success remains unclear. In this work, we bridge this gap by providing a comprehensive theoretical analysis. We first establish the tightness of the relaxation, ensuring that the global maximum values of the original combinatorial problem and the relaxed problem coincide. Then we reveal the benign geometry of the optimization landscape by proving a strict dichotomy of stationary points: all integral stationary points are local maximizers, whereas all non-integral stationary points are strict saddles with explicit positive curvature. We propose a saddle-escaping Frank--Wolfe algorithm and prove that it achieves exact convergence to an integral local maximizer in a finite number of steps.
title On Densest $k$-Subgraph Mining and Diagonal Loading: Optimization Landscape and Finite-Step Exact Convergence Analysis
topic Social and Information Networks
Data Structures and Algorithms
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.07388