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Main Authors: Liu, Feng, Cang, Hao, Yuan, Huanhuan, Fan, Jiaqing, Hao, Yongjing, Zhuang, Fuzhen, Liu, Guanfeng, Zhao, Pengpeng
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.15744
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author Liu, Feng
Cang, Hao
Yuan, Huanhuan
Fan, Jiaqing
Hao, Yongjing
Zhuang, Fuzhen
Liu, Guanfeng
Zhao, Pengpeng
author_facet Liu, Feng
Cang, Hao
Yuan, Huanhuan
Fan, Jiaqing
Hao, Yongjing
Zhuang, Fuzhen
Liu, Guanfeng
Zhao, Pengpeng
contents Spectral graph neural networks (GNNs) are highly effective in modeling graph signals, with their success in recommendation often attributed to low-pass filtering. However, recent studies highlight the importance of high-frequency signals. The role of low-frequency and high-frequency graph signals in recommendation remains unclear. This paper aims to bridge this gap by investigating the influence of graph signals on recommendation performance. We theoretically prove that the effects of low-frequency and high-frequency graph signals are equivalent in recommendation tasks, as both contribute by smoothing the similarities between user-item pairs. To leverage this insight, we propose a frequency signal scaler, a plug-and-play module that adjusts the graph signal filter function to fine-tune the smoothness between user-item pairs, making it compatible with any GNN model. Additionally, we identify and prove that graph embedding-based methods cannot fully capture the characteristics of graph signals. To address this limitation, a space flip method is introduced to restore the expressive power of graph embeddings. Remarkably, we demonstrate that either low-frequency or high-frequency graph signals alone are sufficient for effective recommendations. Extensive experiments on four public datasets validate the effectiveness of our proposed methods. Code is avaliable at https://github.com/mojosey/SimGCF.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_15744
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle How Do Graph Signals Affect Recommendation: Unveiling the Mystery of Low and High-Frequency Graph Signals
Liu, Feng
Cang, Hao
Yuan, Huanhuan
Fan, Jiaqing
Hao, Yongjing
Zhuang, Fuzhen
Liu, Guanfeng
Zhao, Pengpeng
Machine Learning
Spectral graph neural networks (GNNs) are highly effective in modeling graph signals, with their success in recommendation often attributed to low-pass filtering. However, recent studies highlight the importance of high-frequency signals. The role of low-frequency and high-frequency graph signals in recommendation remains unclear. This paper aims to bridge this gap by investigating the influence of graph signals on recommendation performance. We theoretically prove that the effects of low-frequency and high-frequency graph signals are equivalent in recommendation tasks, as both contribute by smoothing the similarities between user-item pairs. To leverage this insight, we propose a frequency signal scaler, a plug-and-play module that adjusts the graph signal filter function to fine-tune the smoothness between user-item pairs, making it compatible with any GNN model. Additionally, we identify and prove that graph embedding-based methods cannot fully capture the characteristics of graph signals. To address this limitation, a space flip method is introduced to restore the expressive power of graph embeddings. Remarkably, we demonstrate that either low-frequency or high-frequency graph signals alone are sufficient for effective recommendations. Extensive experiments on four public datasets validate the effectiveness of our proposed methods. Code is avaliable at https://github.com/mojosey/SimGCF.
title How Do Graph Signals Affect Recommendation: Unveiling the Mystery of Low and High-Frequency Graph Signals
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.15744