Maximizing the spectral gap through graph rewiring has been proposed to enhance the performance of message-passing graph neural networks (GNNs) by addressing over-squashing. However, as we show, minimizing the spectral gap can also improve generalization. To explain this, we analyze how rewiring can benefit GNNs within the context of stochastic block models. Since spectral gap optimization primarily influences community strength, it improves performance when the community structure aligns with node labels. Building on this insight, we propose three distinct rewiring strategies that explicitly target community structure, node labels, and their alignment: (a) community structure-based rewiring (ComMa), a more computationally efficient alternative to spectral gap optimization that achieves similar goals; (b) feature similarity-based rewiring (FeaSt), which focuses on maximizing global homophily; and (c) a hybrid approach (ComFy), which enhances local feature similarity while preserving community structure to optimize label-community alignment. Extensive experiments confirm the effectiveness of these strategies and support our theoretical insights.

Deep neural networks (DNNs) have been shown to memorize their training data, but similar analyses for graph neural networks (GNNs) remain under-explored. We introduce NCMemo (Node Classification Memorization), the first framework to quantify label memorization in semi-supervised node classification. We establish an inverse relationship between memorization and graph homophily, i.e the tendency of connected nodes to share labels or features. Lower homophily significantly increases memorization, indicating that GNNs rely on label memorization when learning less homophilic graphs. We then analyze GNN training dynamics and find that increased memorization in low-homophily graphs is tightly coupled to GNNs' implicit bias toward using graph structure. When structure is less informative, models instead memorize node labels to minimize training loss. Finally, we show that nodes with higher label inconsistency in their feature-space neighborhood are more prone to memorization. Based on these insights, we investigate graph rewiring as a mitigation strategy. Our results show that rewiring reduces memorization without harming model performance, while also lowering the privacy risk for previously memorized data points. Thus, our work advances understanding of GNN learning and supports more privacy-preserving GNN deployment.

Message Passing Graph Neural Networks are known to suffer from two problems that are sometimes believed to be diametrically opposed: over-squashing and over-smoothing. The former results from topological bottlenecks that hamper the information flow from distant nodes and are mitigated by spectral gap maximization, primarily, by means of edge additions. However, such additions often promote over-smoothing that renders nodes of different classes less distinguishable. Inspired by the Braess phenomenon, we argue that deleting edges can address over-squashing and over-smoothing simultaneously. This insight explains how edge deletions can improve generalization, thus connecting spectral gap optimization to a seemingly disconnected objective of reducing computational resources by pruning graphs for lottery tickets. To this end, we propose a computationally effective spectral gap optimization framework to add or delete edges and demonstrate its effectiveness on the long range graph benchmark and on larger heterophilous datasets.

Learning low-dimensional embeddings of graph data in curved Riemannian manifolds has gained traction due to their desirable property of acting as effective geometrical inductive biases. More specifically, models of Hyperbolic geometry such as Poincar\'{e} Ball and Lorentz/Hyperboloid Model have found applications for learning data with hierarchical anatomy. Gromov's hyperbolicity measures whether a graph can be isometrically embedded in hyperbolic space. This paper shows that adversarial attacks that perturb the network structure also affect the hyperbolicity of graphs rendering hyperbolic space less effective for learning low-dimensional node embeddings of the graph. To circumvent this problem, we introduce learning embeddings in pseudo-Riemannian manifolds such as Lorentzian manifolds and show empirically that they are robust to adversarial perturbations. Despite the recent proliferation of adversarial robustness methods in the graph data, this is the first work exploring the relationship between adversarial attacks and hyperbolicity while also providing resolution to navigate such vulnerabilities.

In this paper, we propose a method for learning representations in the space of Gaussian-like distribution defined on a novel geometrical space called Kinematic space. The utility of non-Euclidean geometry for deep representation learning has recently been in vogue, specifically models of hyperbolic geometry such as Poincaré and Lorentz models have proven useful for learning hierarchical representations. Going beyond manifolds with constant curvature, albeit has better representation capacity might lead to unhanding of computationally tractable tools like Riemannian optimization methods. Here, we explore a pseudo-Riemannian auxiliary Lorentzian space called Kinematic space and provide a principled approach for constructing a Gaussian-like distribution, which is compatible with gradient-based learning methods, to formulate a probabilistic word embedding framework. Contrary to, mapping lexically distributed representations to a single point vector in Euclidean space, we advocate for mapping entities to density-based representations, as it provides explicit control over the uncertainty in representations. We test our framework by embedding WordNet-Noun hierarchy, a large lexical database, our experiments report strong consistent improvements in Mean Rank and Mean Average Precision (MAP) values compared to probabilistic word embedding frameworks defined on Euclidean and hyperbolic spaces. We show an average improvement of 72.68% in MAP and 82.60% in Rank compared to the hyperbolic version. Our work serves as evidence for the utility of novel geometrical spaces for learning hierarchical representations.