Invariant $\varphi$-minimal sets and total variation denoising on graphs

Abstract: Total variation flow, total variation regularization and the taut string algorithm are known to be equivalent filters for one-dimensional discrete signals. In addition, the filtered signal simultaneously minimizes a large number of convex functionals in a certain neighbourhood of the data. In this article we study the question to what extent this situation remains true in a more general setting, namely for data given on the vertices of a finite oriented graph and the total variation being $J(f) = \sum_{i,j} |f(v_i) - f(v_j)|$. Relying on recent results on invariant $\varphi$-minimal sets we prove that the minimizer to the corresponding Rudin-Osher-Fatemi (ROF) model on the graph has the same universal minimality property as in the one-dimensional setting. Interestingly, this property is lost, if $J$ is replaced by the discrete isotropic total variation. Next, we relate the ROF minimizer to the solution of the gradient flow for $J$. It turns out that, in contrast to the one-dimensional setting, these two problems are not equivalent in general, but conditions for equivalence are available.