Modeling heterogeneity in random graphs through latent space models: a selective review

We present a selective review on probabilistic modeling of heterogeneity in random graphs. We focus on latent space models and more particularly on stochastic block models and their extensions that have undergone major developments in the last five years

Uniform regular weighted graphs with large degree: Wigner's law, asymptotic freeness and graphons limit

For each $N\geq 1$, let $G_N$ be a simple random graph on the set of vertices $[N]=\{1,2, ..., N\}$, which is invariant by relabeling of the vertices. The asymptotic behavior as $N$ goes to infinity of correlation functions: $$\mathfrak C_N(T)= \mathbb E\bigg[ \prod_{(i,j) \in T} \Big(\mathbf 1_{\big(\{i,j\} \in G_N \big)} - \mathbb P(\{i,j\} \in G_N) \Big)\bigg], \ T \subset [N]^2 \textrm{finite}$$ furnishes informations on the asymptotic spectral properties of the adjacency matrix $A_N$ of $G_N$. Denote by $d_N = N\times \mathbb P(\{i,j\} \in G_N)$ and assume $d_N, N-d_N\underset{N \rightarrow \infty}{\longrightarrow} \infty$. If $\mathfrak C_N(T) =\big(\frac{d_N}N\big)^{|T|} \times O\big(d_N^{-\frac {|T|}2}\big)$ for any $T$, the standardized empirical eigenvalue distribution of $A_N$ converges in expectation to the semicircular law and the matrix satisfies asymptotic freeness properties in the sense of free probability theory. We provide such estimates for uniform $d_N$-regular graphs $G_{N,d_N}$, under the additional assumption that $|\frac N 2 - d_N- \eta \sqrt{d_N}| \underset{N \rightarrow \infty}{\longrightarrow} \infty$ for some $\eta>0$. Our method applies also for simple graphs whose edges are labelled by i.i.d. random variables.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure

Limit theory for geometric statistics of point processes having fast decay of correlations

Let $P$ be a simple,stationary point process having fast decay of correlations, i.e., its correlation functions factorize up to an additive error decaying faster than any power of the separation distance. Let $P_n:= P \cap W_n$ be its restriction to windows $W_n:= [-{1 \over 2}n^{1/d},{1 \over 2}n^{1/d}]^d \subset \mathbb{R}^d$. We consider the statistic $H_n^\xi:= \sum_{x \in P_n}\xi(x,P_n)$ where $\xi(x,P_n)$ denotes a score function representing the interaction of $x$ with respect to $P_n$. When $\xi$ depends on local data in the sense that its radius of stabilization has an exponential tail, we establish expectation asymptotics, variance asymptotics, and CLT for $H_n^{\xi}$ and, more generally, for statistics of the re-scaled, possibly signed, $\xi$-weighted point measures $\mu_n^{\xi} := \sum_{x \in P_n} \xi(x,P_n) \delta_{n^{-1/d}x}$, as $W_n \uparrow \mathbb{R}^d$. This gives the limit theory for non-linear geometric statistics (such as clique counts, intrinsic volumes of the Boolean model, and total edge length of the $k$-nearest neighbors graph) of $\alpha$-determinantal point processes having fast decreasing kernels extending the CLTs of Soshnikov (2002) to non-linear statistics. It also gives the limit theory for geometric U-statistics of $\alpha$-permanental point processes and the zero set of Gaussian entire functions, extending the CLTs of Nazarov and Sodin (2012) and Shirai and Takahashi (2003), which are also confined to linear statistics. The proof of the central limit theorem relies on a factorial moment expansion originating in Blaszczyszyn (1995), Blaszczyszyn, Merzbach, Schmidt (1997) to show the fast decay of the correlations of $\xi$-weighted point measures. The latter property is shown to imply a condition equivalent to Brillinger mixing and consequently yields the CLT for $\mu_n^\xi$ via an extension of the cumulant method.Comment: 62 pages. Fundamental changes to the terminology including the title. The earlier 'clustering' condition is now introduced as a notion of mixing and its connection to Brillinger mixing is remarked. Newer results for superposition of independent point processes have been adde

Inapproximability for Antiferromagnetic Spin Systems in the Tree Non-Uniqueness Region

A remarkable connection has been established for antiferromagnetic 2-spin systems, including the Ising and hard-core models, showing that the computational complexity of approximating the partition function for graphs with maximum degree D undergoes a phase transition that coincides with the statistical physics uniqueness/non-uniqueness phase transition on the infinite D-regular tree. Despite this clear picture for 2-spin systems, there is little known for multi-spin systems. We present the first analog of the above inapproximability results for multi-spin systems. The main difficulty in previous inapproximability results was analyzing the behavior of the model on random D-regular bipartite graphs, which served as the gadget in the reduction. To this end one needs to understand the moments of the partition function. Our key contribution is connecting: (i) induced matrix norms, (ii) maxima of the expectation of the partition function, and (iii) attractive fixed points of the associated tree recursions (belief propagation). The view through matrix norms allows a simple and generic analysis of the second moment for any spin system on random D-regular bipartite graphs. This yields concentration results for any spin system in which one can analyze the maxima of the first moment. The connection to fixed points of the tree recursions enables an analysis of the maxima of the first moment for specific models of interest. For k-colorings we prove that for even k, in the tree non-uniqueness region (which corresponds to k<D) it is NP-hard, unless NP=RP, to approximate the number of colorings for triangle-free D-regular graphs. Our proof extends to the antiferromagnetic Potts model, and, in fact, to every antiferromagnetic model under a mild condition