arXiv:2512.16558cs.LG2025-12

提出一种无需调参的多尺度聚类方法,自动识别稳定聚类结构。

Persistent Multiscale Density-based Clustering

  • 基于密度与持续性原理,自动筛选稳定聚类,替代传统参数设置。
  • 在真实数据集上中位数ARI更高,对邻居数变化和重采样更鲁棒。
  • 适合无先验知识的探索性分析,尤其适用于低维到中等高维数据。

聚类是现代数据分析的核心。在探索性数据分析(EDA)中检测聚类需算法对数据假设少。密度聚类方法因仅需存在密度即可描述高密度区域,特别适合EDA。但实际应用中需选择合适超参数,而缺乏数据分布先验时难以确定。例如,DBSCAN需设定密度阈值,HDBSCAN*依赖最小聚类大小参数。本文提出持久叶空间聚类(PLSCAN),一种多尺度密度聚类算法,将HDBSCAN*中固定最小聚类大小的剪枝替换为基于持续性的聚类选择过程。本质上,PLSCAN识别所有能产生稳定(叶)聚类的最小聚类大小。概念上,PLSCAN采用尺度空间聚类思想,等价于在新度量空间上的持久同调。在多个真实数据集上与HDBSCAN*比较,结果表明其获得更高中位数ARI,对互达距离邻居数变化不敏感,且重采样下稳定性更强。此外,与k-Means++相比,其在低维数据上运行时间具有竞争力;在高维数据上,计算耗时与HDBSCAN*类似。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Clustering is a cornerstone of modern data analysis. Detecting clusters in exploratory data analyses (EDA) requires algorithms that make few assumptions about the data. Density-based clustering algorithms are particularly well-suited for EDA because they describe high-density regions, assuming only that a density exists. Applying density-based clustering algorithms in practice, however, requires selecting appropriate hyperparameters, which is difficult without prior knowledge of the data distribution. For example, DBSCAN requires selecting a density threshold, and HDBSCAN* relies on a minimum cluster size parameter. In this work, we propose Persistent Leaves Spatial Clustering for Applications with Noise (PLSCAN), a multiscale density-based clustering algorithm that replaces HDBSCAN*'s fixed minimum cluster size pruning of a mutual-reachability linkage hierarchy with a persistence-based cluster selection procedure. Effectively, PLSCAN identifies all minimum cluster sizes for which HDBSCAN* produces stable (leaf) clusters. In concept, PLSCAN applies scale-space clustering principles and is equivalent to persistent homology on a novel metric space. We compare its performance to HDBSCAN* on several real-world datasets, demonstrating that it achieves a higher median ARI, is less sensitive to changes in the number of mutual reachability neighbours, and has higher stability under resampling. Additionally, we compare PLSCAN's computational costs to $k$-Means++, demonstrating competitive run-times on low-dimensional datasets. At higher dimensions, run times scale more similarly to HDBSCAN*.

聚类密度聚类持续性无监督学习

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