Noisy Graph Patterns via Ordered Matrices

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Wulms, Jules, Meulemans, Wouter, Speckmann, Bettina
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Wulms, Jules
Meulemans, Wouter
Speckmann, Bettina
author_facet Wulms, Jules
Meulemans, Wouter
Speckmann, Bettina
contents The high-level structure of a graph is a crucial ingredient for the analysis and visualization of relational data. However, discovering the salient graph patterns that form this structure is notoriously difficult for two reasons. (1) Finding important patterns, such as cliques and bicliques, is computationally hard. (2) Real-world graphs contain noise, and therefore do not always exhibit patterns in their pure form. Defining meaningful noisy patterns and detecting them efficiently is a currently unsolved challenge. In this paper, we propose to use well-ordered matrices as a tool to both define and effectively detect noisy patterns. Specifically, we represent a graph as its adjacency matrix and optimally order it using Moran's $I$. Standard graph patterns (cliques, bicliques, and stars) now translate to rectangular submatrices. Using Moran's $I$, we define a permitted level of noise for such patterns. A combination of exact algorithms and heuristics allows us to efficiently decompose the matrix into noisy patterns. We also introduce a novel motif simplification that visualizes noisy patterns while explicitly encoding the level of noise. We showcase our techniques on several real-world data sets.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_11171
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Noisy Graph Patterns via Ordered Matrices
Wulms, Jules
Meulemans, Wouter
Speckmann, Bettina
Human-Computer Interaction
The high-level structure of a graph is a crucial ingredient for the analysis and visualization of relational data. However, discovering the salient graph patterns that form this structure is notoriously difficult for two reasons. (1) Finding important patterns, such as cliques and bicliques, is computationally hard. (2) Real-world graphs contain noise, and therefore do not always exhibit patterns in their pure form. Defining meaningful noisy patterns and detecting them efficiently is a currently unsolved challenge. In this paper, we propose to use well-ordered matrices as a tool to both define and effectively detect noisy patterns. Specifically, we represent a graph as its adjacency matrix and optimally order it using Moran's $I$. Standard graph patterns (cliques, bicliques, and stars) now translate to rectangular submatrices. Using Moran's $I$, we define a permitted level of noise for such patterns. A combination of exact algorithms and heuristics allows us to efficiently decompose the matrix into noisy patterns. We also introduce a novel motif simplification that visualizes noisy patterns while explicitly encoding the level of noise. We showcase our techniques on several real-world data sets.
title Noisy Graph Patterns via Ordered Matrices
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.11171