Masked Symmetric Nonnegative Matrix Factorization for Community Detection in Incomplete Networks

Abstract: Community detection in complex networks is frequently challenged by incomplete or noisy adjacency matrices. Traditional symmetric nonnegative matrix factorization methods typically rely on zero-imputation for unobserved entries, which compromises clustering reliability. This paper proposes a Masked Symmetric Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (Masked SymNMF) framework designed to factorize partially observed networks directly. By defining a masking operator over the observed entries, the proposed model restricts the objective evaluation exclusively to valid data. To overcome the severe non-convexity inherent in the symmetric factorization, we formulate an asymmetric relaxation penalized by a regularization term. We prove the exact penalty property of this reformulated model, establishing its theoretical equivalence to the original symmetric problem under sufficient regularization. Furthermore, an alternating nonnegative least squares framework is developed, yielding tailored update rules for Multiplicative Updates, Hierarchical Alternating Least Squares, and Projected Gradient Descent algorithms. Extensive numerical experiments on synthetic datasets and real-world networks demonstrate that the proposed Masked SymNMF outperforms baseline imputation methods across varying observation densities, providing a theoretically sound and practically efficient approach for community detection in incomplete networks.