Learning graphons from data: Random walks, transfer operators, and spectral clustering

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Klus, Stefan, Bramburger, Jason J.
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Klus, Stefan
Bramburger, Jason J.
author_facet Klus, Stefan
Bramburger, Jason J.
contents Many signals evolve in time as a stochastic process, randomly switching between states over discretely sampled time points. Here we make an explicit link between the underlying stochastic process of a signal that can take on a bounded continuum of values and a random walk process on a graphon. Graphons are infinite-dimensional objects that represent the limit of convergent sequences of graphs whose size tends to infinity. We introduce transfer operators, such as the Koopman and Perron--Frobenius operators, associated with random walk processes on graphons and then illustrate how these operators can be estimated from signal data and how their eigenvalues and eigenfunctions can be used for detecting clusters, thereby extending conventional spectral clustering methods from graphs to graphons. Furthermore, we show that it is also possible to reconstruct transition probability densities and, if the random walk process is reversible, the graphon itself using only the signal. The resulting data-driven methods are applied to a variety of synthetic and real-world signals, including daily average temperatures and stock index values.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_18147
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Learning graphons from data: Random walks, transfer operators, and spectral clustering
Klus, Stefan
Bramburger, Jason J.
Machine Learning
Many signals evolve in time as a stochastic process, randomly switching between states over discretely sampled time points. Here we make an explicit link between the underlying stochastic process of a signal that can take on a bounded continuum of values and a random walk process on a graphon. Graphons are infinite-dimensional objects that represent the limit of convergent sequences of graphs whose size tends to infinity. We introduce transfer operators, such as the Koopman and Perron--Frobenius operators, associated with random walk processes on graphons and then illustrate how these operators can be estimated from signal data and how their eigenvalues and eigenfunctions can be used for detecting clusters, thereby extending conventional spectral clustering methods from graphs to graphons. Furthermore, we show that it is also possible to reconstruct transition probability densities and, if the random walk process is reversible, the graphon itself using only the signal. The resulting data-driven methods are applied to a variety of synthetic and real-world signals, including daily average temperatures and stock index values.
title Learning graphons from data: Random walks, transfer operators, and spectral clustering
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.18147