Hierarchical Discrete Flow Matching for Graph Generation

arXiv cs.LG / 4/2/2026

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Key Points

  • The paper proposes a hierarchical generative framework for graph generation to address two key bottlenecks in denoising-based models: quadratic scaling with node count and high numbers of function evaluations during sampling.
  • It combines hierarchy with discrete flow matching to reduce the number of node pairs that must be evaluated and to cut down the required denoising iterations.
  • The authors report empirical results showing improved fidelity in capturing graph distributions compared with prior approaches.
  • They also claim a substantial reduction in generation time, indicating the method is more computationally efficient for graph generation tasks.

Abstract

Denoising-based models, including diffusion and flow matching, have led to substantial advances in graph generation. Despite this progress, such models remain constrained by two fundamental limitations: a computational cost that scales quadratically with the number of nodes and a large number of function evaluations required during generation. In this work, we introduce a novel hierarchical generative framework that reduces the number of node pairs that must be evaluated and adopts discrete flow matching to significantly decrease the number of denoising iterations. We empirically demonstrate that our approach more effectively captures graph distributions while substantially reducing generation time.