Cluster-wise Graph Transformer with Dual-granularity Kernelized Attention

Published: 25 Sept 2024, Last Modified: 06 Nov 2024NeurIPS 2024 spotlightEveryoneRevisionsBibTeXCC BY 4.0
Keywords: Graph Based Learning
TL;DR: We introduce the Cluster-wise Graph Transformer (Cluster-GT) with a novel Node-to-Cluster Attention (N2C-Attn) mechanism, utilizing a dual-granularity kernel to capture information at both node and cluster levels.
Abstract: In the realm of graph learning, there is a category of methods that conceptualize graphs as hierarchical structures, utilizing node clustering to capture broader structural information. While generally effective, these methods often rely on a fixed graph coarsening routine, leading to overly homogeneous cluster representations and loss of node-level information. In this paper, we envision the graph as a network of interconnected node sets without compressing each cluster into a single embedding. To enable effective information transfer among these node sets, we propose the Node-to-Cluster Attention (N2C-Attn) mechanism. N2C-Attn incorporates techniques from Multiple Kernel Learning into the kernelized attention framework, effectively capturing information at both node and cluster levels. We then devise an efficient form for N2C-Attn using the cluster-wise message-passing framework, achieving linear time complexity. We further analyze how N2C-Attn combines bi-level feature maps of queries and keys, demonstrating its capability to merge dual-granularity information. The resulting architecture, Cluster-wise Graph Transformer (Cluster-GT), which uses node clusters as tokens and employs our proposed N2C-Attn module, shows superior performance on various graph-level tasks. Code is available at https://github.com/LUMIA-Group/Cluster-wise-Graph-Transformer.
Primary Area: Graph neural networks
Submission Number: 8271
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