Diffusion Model for Graph Inverse Problems: Towards Effective Source Localization on Complex Networks

Information diffusion problems, such as the spread of epidemics or rumors, are widespread in society. The inverse problems of graph diffusion, which involve locating the sources and identifying the paths of diffusion based on currently observed diffusion graphs, are crucial to controlling the spread of information. The problem of localizing the source of diffusion is highly ill-posed, presenting a major obstacle in accurately assessing the uncertainty involved. Besides, while comprehending how information diffuses through a graph is crucial, there is a scarcity of research on reconstructing the paths of information propagation. To tackle these challenges, we propose a probabilistic model called DDMSL (Discrete Diffusion Model for Source Localization). Our approach is based on the natural diffusion process of information propagation over complex networks, which can be formulated using a message-passing function. First, we model the forward diffusion of information using Markov chains. Then, we design a reversible residual network to construct a denoising-diffusion model in discrete space for both source localization and reconstruction of information diffusion paths. We provide rigorous theoretical guarantees for DDMSL and demonstrate its effectiveness through extensive experiments on five real-world datasets.