Nonparametric estimation of time-varying network connections by multi-stage smoothing

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Hauptverfasser: Lee, Jeonghwan, Li, Tianxi, Rothman, Adam J.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Lee, Jeonghwan
Li, Tianxi
Rothman, Adam J.
author_facet Lee, Jeonghwan
Li, Tianxi
Rothman, Adam J.
contents We consider the problem of estimating the underlying edge probabilities of a time-varying network observed at multiple time points. The probability structure is represented by a time-varying graphon that satisfies temporal Hölder smoothness and piecewise Lipschitz conditions in the latent variables. We propose a multi-stage smoothing estimator that first applies temporal local smoothing to each edge and then performs node-domain smoothing using a data-driven neighborhood construction adapted from the method. An additional temporal smoothing step is introduced as an optional refinement when uniform accuracy over the entire time domain is required. Simulation studies demonstrate the benefits of combining temporal and node-domain smoothing under different generative models. We also apply the method to a real time-varying network dataset and show that it captures both smooth temporal evolution and structural patterns in the connectivity.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_06862
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Nonparametric estimation of time-varying network connections by multi-stage smoothing
Lee, Jeonghwan
Li, Tianxi
Rothman, Adam J.
Methodology
Machine Learning
We consider the problem of estimating the underlying edge probabilities of a time-varying network observed at multiple time points. The probability structure is represented by a time-varying graphon that satisfies temporal Hölder smoothness and piecewise Lipschitz conditions in the latent variables. We propose a multi-stage smoothing estimator that first applies temporal local smoothing to each edge and then performs node-domain smoothing using a data-driven neighborhood construction adapted from the method. An additional temporal smoothing step is introduced as an optional refinement when uniform accuracy over the entire time domain is required. Simulation studies demonstrate the benefits of combining temporal and node-domain smoothing under different generative models. We also apply the method to a real time-varying network dataset and show that it captures both smooth temporal evolution and structural patterns in the connectivity.
title Nonparametric estimation of time-varying network connections by multi-stage smoothing
topic Methodology
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.06862