# Expressive Sign Equivariant Networks for Spectral Geometric Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.02339 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02339/

## Key facts

- Cited by 15 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 64 of its 83 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 4 Dec 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 64)

- [Semi-Supervised Classification with Graph Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.02907/) (2016)
- [Graph Attention Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.10903/) (2017)
- [How Powerful are Graph Neural Networks?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.00826/) (2018)
- [Neural Message Passing for Quantum Chemistry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.01212/) (2017)
- [Open Graph Benchmark: Datasets for Machine Learning on Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.00687/) (2020)
- [Deep Sets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.06114/) (2017)
- [Geometric Deep Learning: Grids, Groups, Graphs, Geodesics, and Gauges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.13478/) (2021)
- [Group Equivariant Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.07576/) (2016)
- [E(n) Equivariant Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09844/) (2021)
- [Link Prediction Based on Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.09691/) (2018)
- [Tensor field networks: Rotation- and translation-equivariant neural networks for 3D point clouds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.08219/) (2018)
- [Recipe for a General, Powerful, Scalable Graph Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.12454/) (2022)
- [Benchmarking Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.00982/) (2020)
- [SE(3)-Transformers: 3D Roto-Translation Equivariant Attention Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.10503/) (2020)
- [Rethinking Graph Transformers with Spectral Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.03893/) (2021)
- [3D Steerable CNNs: Learning Rotationally Equivariant Features in Volumetric Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.02547/) (2018)
- [Residual Gated Graph ConvNets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.07553/) (2017)
- [Invariant and Equivariant Graph Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.09902/) (2018)
- [Neural Relational Inference for Interacting Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.04687/) (2018)
- [Graph Neural Networks with Learnable Structural and Positional Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.07875/) (2021)
- [Community Detection and Stochastic Block Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.10146/) (2017)
- [Steerable CNNs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.08498/) (2016)
- [Vector Neurons: A General Framework for SO(3)-Equivariant Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.12229/) (2021)
- [On the Generalization of Equivariance and Convolution in Neural Networks to the Action of Compact Groups](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.03690/) (2018)
- [Neural Bellman-Ford Networks: A General Graph Neural Network Framework for Link Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.06935/) (2021)
- [Cormorant: Covariant Molecular Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.04015/) (2019)
- [Equivariant Flows: Exact Likelihood Generative Learning for Symmetric Densities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.02425/) (2020)
- [Can Graph Neural Networks Count Substructures?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.04025/) (2020)
- [Network Embedding as Matrix Factorization: Unifying DeepWalk, LINE, PTE, and node2vec](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.02971/) (2017)
- [The Surprising Power of Graph Neural Networks with Random Node Initialization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.01179/) (2020)

## Built on by (most cited first, 15 of 15)

- [A Canonicalization Perspective on Invariant and Equivariant Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.18378/) (2024)
- [Symmetry Breaking and Equivariant Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.09016/) (2023)
- [Scale Equivariant Graph Metanetworks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.10685/) (2024)
- [Equivariance via Minimal Frame Averaging for More Symmetries and Efficiency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.07598/) (2024)
- [Improving Equivariant Networks with Probabilistic Symmetry Breaking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.21985/) (2025)
- [What Are Good Positional Encodings for Directed Graphs?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.20912/) (2024)
- [Homomorphism Counts as Structural Encodings for Graph Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.18676/) (2024)
- [Future Directions in the Theory of Graph Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.02287/) (2024)
- [Stiefel Flow Matching for Moment-Constrained Structure Elucidation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.12540/) (2024)
- [Balancing Efficiency and Expressiveness: Subgraph GNNs with Walk-Based Centrality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.03113/) (2025)
- [Rethinking Spectral Graph Neural Networks with Spatially Adaptive Filtering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.09071/) (2024)
- [Adaptive Canonicalization with Application to Invariant Anisotropic Geometric Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.24886/) (2025)
- [Equivariant Machine Learning on Graphs with Nonlinear Spectral Filters](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.01249/) (2024)
- [SESaMo: Symmetry-Enforcing Stochastic Modulation for Normalizing Flows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.19619/) (2025)
- [Edge-Level Automorphism in GNNs: A Quantitative Framework and Effective Designs For Link Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.34729/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recent work has shown the utility of developing machine learning models that respect the structure and symmetries of eigenvectors. These works promote sign invariance, since for any eigenvector v the negation -v is also an eigenvector. However, we show that sign invariance is theoretically limited for tasks such as building orthogonally equivariant models and learning node positional encodings for link prediction in graphs. In this work, we demonstrate the benefits of sign equivariance for these tasks. To obtain these benefits, we develop novel sign equivariant neural network architectures. Our models are based on a new analytic characterization of sign equivariant polynomials and thus inherit provable expressiveness properties. Controlled synthetic experiments show that our networks can achieve the theoretically predicted benefits of sign equivariant models. Code is available at https://github.com/cptq/Sign-Equivariant-Nets.