Dario Fasino

Dario Fasino, Francesco Tudisco

One of the most relevant tasks in network analysis is the detection of community structures, or clustering. Most popular techniques for community detection are based on the maximization of a quality function called modularity, which in turn is based upon particular quadratic forms associated to a real symmetric modularity matrix $M$, defined in terms of the adjacency matrix and a rank one null model matrix. That matrix could be posed inside the set of relevant matrices involved in graph theory, alongside adjacency, incidence and Laplacian matrices. This is the reason we propose a graph analysis based on the algebraic and spectral properties of such matrix. In particular, we propose a nodal domain theorem for the eigenvectors of $M$; we point out several relations occurring between graph's communities and nonnegative eigenvalues of $M$; and we derive a Cheeger-type inequality for the graph optimal modularity.

Dario Fasino, Francesco Tudisco

Various modularity matrices appeared in the recent literature on network analysis and algebraic graph theory. Their purpose is to allow writing as quadratic forms certain combinatorial functions appearing in the framework of graph clustering problems. In this paper we put in evidence certain common traits of various modularity matrices and shed light on their spectral properties that are at the basis of various theoretical results and practical spectral-type algorithms for community detection.

Dario Fasino, Francesco Tudisco

In a graph or complex network, communities and anti-communities are node sets whose modularity attains extremely large values, positive and negative, respectively. We consider the simultaneous detection of communities and anti-communities, by looking at spectral methods based on various matrix-based definitions of the modularity of a vertex set. Invariant subspaces associated to extreme eigenvalues of these matrices provide indications on the presence of both kinds of modular structure in the network. The localization of the relevant invariant subspaces can be estimated by looking at particular matrix angles based on Frobenius inner products.

Dario Fasino, Francesco Tudisco

Nodal theorems for generalized modularity matrices ensure that the cluster located by the positive entries of the leading eigenvector of various modularity matrices induces a connected subgraph. In this paper we obtain lower bounds for the modularity of that set of nodes showing that, under certain conditions, the nodal domains induced by eigenvectors corresponding to highly positive eigenvalues of the normalized modularity matrix have indeed positive modularity, that is they can be recognized as modules inside the network. Moreover we establish Cheeger-type inequalities for the cut-modularity of the graph, providing a theoretical support to the common understanding that highly positive eigenvalues of modularity matrices are related with the possibility of subdividing a network into communities.

Dario Fasino, Francesco Tudisco

We propose a new localization result for the leading eigenvalue and eigenvector of a symmetric matrix $A$. The result exploits the Frobenius inner product between $A$ and a given rank-one landmark matrix $X$. Different choices for $X$ may be used, depending upon the problem under investigation. In particular, we show that the choice where $X$ is the all-ones matrix allows to estimate the signature of the leading eigenvector of $A$, generalizing previous results on Perron-Frobenius properties of matrices with some negative entries. As another application we consider the problem of community detection in graphs and networks. The problem is solved by means of modularity-based spectral techniques, following the ideas pioneered by Miroslav Fiedler in mid 70s. We show that a suitable choice of $X$ can be used to provide new quality guarantees of those techniques, when the network follows a stochastic block model.

Dario Fasino, Antonio Fazzi

The Total Least Squares solution of an overdetermined, approximate linear equation $Ax \approx b$ minimizes a nonlinear function which characterizes the backward error. We show that a globally convergent variant of the Gauss--Newton iteration can be tailored to compute that solution. At each iteration, the proposed method requires the solution of an ordinary least squares problem where the matrix $A$ is perturbed by a rank-one term.