Quantum Motif Clustering

Quantum 7, 1046 (2023).

https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2023-07-03-1046

We present three quantum algorithms for clustering graphs based on higher-order patterns, known as motif clustering. One uses a straightforward application of Grover search, the other two make use of quantum approximate counting, and all of them obtain square-root like speedups over the fastest classical algorithms in various settings. In order to use approximate counting in the context of clustering, we show that for general weighted graphs the performance of spectral clustering is mostly left unchanged by the presence of constant (relative) errors on the edge weights. Finally, we extend the original analysis of motif clustering in order to better understand the role of multiple `anchor nodes’ in motifs and the types of relationships that this method of clustering can and cannot capture.