Efficient Algorithms for Computing Random Walk Centrality

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Liu, Changan, Xie, Zixuan, Zehmakan, Ahad N., Zhang, Zhongzhi
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Liu, Changan
Xie, Zixuan
Zehmakan, Ahad N.
Zhang, Zhongzhi
author_facet Liu, Changan
Xie, Zixuan
Zehmakan, Ahad N.
Zhang, Zhongzhi
contents Random walk centrality is a fundamental metric in graph mining for quantifying node importance and influence, defined as the weighted average of hitting times to a node from all other nodes. Despite its ability to capture rich graph structural information and its wide range of applications, computing this measure for large networks remains impractical due to the computational demands of existing methods. In this paper, we present a novel formulation of random walk centrality, underpinning two scalable algorithms: one leveraging approximate Cholesky factorization and sparse inverse estimation, while the other sampling rooted spanning trees. Both algorithms operate in near-linear time and provide strong approximation guarantees. Extensive experiments on large real-world networks, including one with over 10 million nodes, demonstrate the efficiency and approximation quality of the proposed algorithms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_20604
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Efficient Algorithms for Computing Random Walk Centrality
Liu, Changan
Xie, Zixuan
Zehmakan, Ahad N.
Zhang, Zhongzhi
Artificial Intelligence
Random walk centrality is a fundamental metric in graph mining for quantifying node importance and influence, defined as the weighted average of hitting times to a node from all other nodes. Despite its ability to capture rich graph structural information and its wide range of applications, computing this measure for large networks remains impractical due to the computational demands of existing methods. In this paper, we present a novel formulation of random walk centrality, underpinning two scalable algorithms: one leveraging approximate Cholesky factorization and sparse inverse estimation, while the other sampling rooted spanning trees. Both algorithms operate in near-linear time and provide strong approximation guarantees. Extensive experiments on large real-world networks, including one with over 10 million nodes, demonstrate the efficiency and approximation quality of the proposed algorithms.
title Efficient Algorithms for Computing Random Walk Centrality
topic Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.20604