Systematic identification of statistically significant network measures

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new graph embedding method based on scalar measures for statistical network analysis, enabling efficient detection of significant network features and supporting machine learning applications.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel scalar-based embedding space for networks, improving efficiency, flexibility, and statistical significance testing over existing methods.

Findings

Discovery of 'motif-hubs' in networks

Enhanced computational efficiency

Learned distributions improve significance testing

Abstract

We present a novel graph embedding space (i.e., a set of measures on graphs) for performing statistical analyses of networks. Key improvements over existing approaches include discovery of "motif-hubs" (multiple overlapping significant subgraphs), computational efficiency relative to subgraph census, and flexibility (the method is easily generalizable to weighted and signed graphs). The embedding space is based on {\it scalars}, functionals of the adjacency matrix representing the network. {\it Scalars} are global, involving all nodes; although they can be related to subgraph enumeration, there is not a one-to-one mapping between scalars and subgraphs. Improvements in network randomization and significance testing--we learn the distribution rather than assuming gaussianity--are also presented. The resulting algorithm establishes a systematic approach to the identification of the most significant scalars and suggests machine-learning techniques for network classification.