arXiv Machine Learning

A Weisfeiler-Leman Characterization of Global-Attention Graph Transformers for Mixed-Integer Linear Programs

arXiv:2607. 17570v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Graph foundation models (GFMs) with global attention are increasingly used to represent mixed-integer linear programs (MILPs), aiming to capture structure beyond the locality of standard graph neural networks.

arXiv AI
Jun 9

Capacity-Controlled Global Attention for Graph Transformers

arXiv:2604. 17324v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Global self-attention drives modern graph transformers, yet the softmax at its core imposes a structural constraint rarely examined directly: every attention row is non-negative and sums to one, so each per-head output is a mass-conserving convex combination of value vectors.

By Yang Liu, Dongxin Guo, Tom Zheng, Siu Ming Yiu, Liam Ning, Jikun Wu
arXiv Machine Learning
4d ago

Lost in Tokenization: Fundamental Trade-offs in Graph Tokenization for Transformers

The paper investigates how the choice of graph tokenization affects transformer expressivity. It analyzes three tokenization families—spectral, random‑walk, and adjacency—showing that each induces different depth requirements and that some tokenizations are inherently lossy or ill‑conditioned for certain tasks. The authors prove lower bounds and impossibility results for converting between tokenizations and validate these findings with experiments on synthetic and real‑world data.

By Maya Bechler-Speicher, Gilad Yehudai, Gil Harari, Clayton Sanford, Amir Globerson, Joan Bruna
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 19

HyPE-GT: where Graph Transformers meet Hyperbolic Positional Encodings

HyPE-GT introduces a framework that generates learnable hyperbolic positional encodings for Graph Transformers, enabling the capture of complex hierarchical relationships in graph-structured data. Unlike traditional Euclidean encodings, HyPE’s hyperbolic encodings can be selected to suit specific downstream tasks and help mitigate oversmoothing in deep Graph Neural Networks. Experiments on molecular benchmarks and large-scale Open Graph Benchmark datasets demonstrate improved performance, while additional tests on Coauthor and Copurchase networks confirm HyPE’s effectiveness in controlling oversmoothing.

By Kushal Bose, Swagatam Das
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 28

Plain Transformers Can be Powerful Graph Learners

The paper shows that a plain Transformer can serve as an effective graph learner by adding three lightweight modifications: simplified L₂ attention, adaptive RMS normalization, and an MLP-based positional encoding stem. These changes preserve token magnitude and enable the model to achieve high expressivity on graph benchmarks, outperforming more complex graph transformer variants. The results suggest that plain Transformers can act as a unified backbone for multimodal learning across language, vision, and graph domains.

By Liheng Ma, Soumyasundar Pal, Yingxue Zhang, Philip H. S. Torr, Mark Coates