REVIEW 2 major objections 6 minor 66 references
Interleaving distance on Reeb cosheaves of proximity graphs yields object-level confidence regions for the unknown Reeb graph of a filtered space from finite samples.
Reviewed by Pith at T0; open to challenge. T0 means a machine referee read the full paper against a public rubric. the ladder, T0–T4 →
T0 review · grok-4.5
2026-07-10 07:08 UTC pith:GUMIVSHF
load-bearing objection Solid object-level Reeb confidence theory with a clean PL-vs-Mapper split; experiments are honest about their weaker calibration. the 2 major comments →
Building confidence regions for Reeb graphs using the interleaving distance
The pith
A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.
Core claim
Under covering-radius control of a finite sample, the Reeb cosheaf of the PL proximity graph on that sample is close in interleaving distance to the true Reeb cosheaf of the filtered space; the resulting interleaving balls are therefore valid confidence regions for the unknown Reeb graph, and they dominate the usual extended-persistence bottleneck pseudometric by a factor of two.
What carries the argument
The PL-Reeb estimator R^{S_n,\rho}_\delta (Reeb cosheaf of the geometric realization of the proximity graph with linear filter extension) together with the interleaving distance d_I on constructible cosheaves; stability maps it to the true Reeb cosheaf at scale \mu_\delta (intrinsic) or \omega_f(\eta_\tau(\delta)) (extrinsic, positive reach).
Load-bearing premise
Extrinsic bounds and several confidence conversions require the underlying support to have positive reach and the Euclidean covering radius to stay below that reach; without positive reach the Euclidean-to-intrinsic distortion control fails.
What would settle it
On a compact positive-reach manifold with known Reeb graph, draw large i.i.d. samples, build the PL estimator at the theoretically prescribed scale, and check whether the true Reeb cosheaf lies inside the claimed interleaving ball at the nominal rate; systematic failure of coverage falsifies the confidence claim.
Editorial analysis
A structured set of objections, weighed in public.
Referee Report
Summary. The paper constructs interleaving-distance confidence regions for Reeb graphs from finite samples. The primary estimator is the Reeb cosheaf of a piecewise-linear filtered proximity graph on the sample (intrinsic or Euclidean); Mapper graphs are treated as controlled cover coarsenings used for visualization. The authors prove a comparison d_Δ ≤ 2 d_I between the extended-persistence pseudometric and the interleaving distance (constant 1 for Ord0, Ext0, Rel1), stability of the PL–Reeb estimators under covering-radius control (with positive-reach distortion for the extrinsic case), and transfer of Hausdorff-scale probabilistic bounds into interleaving balls via (a,b)-standard tails or Fasy-type subsampling. Numerical experiments on a torus and an ant mesh illustrate feature selection on the PL object and pushforward to Mapper graphs.
Significance. If the results hold as stated, the paper supplies a genuine object-level alternative to persistence-based Mapper confidence sets: interleaving balls separate non-isomorphic Reeb graphs, and the PL-versus-Mapper split cleanly separates statistical approximation from visualization. The comparison theorem links this geometry to extended persistence with sharp H0 constants, and the stability theorems give explicit, usable radii under standard geometric hypotheses. Strengths include detailed proofs (including the Ext1 Hall-rank argument and density reduction in Appendix C), an explicit comparison with CMO18 and BBS25 in Appendix A, and open disclosure that rate-corrected subsampling radii and unsplit (a,b) plug-ins are not theorem-level certificates (Remarks 5.1, 6.1). The contribution is solid for the TDA–statistics interface and advances beyond bottleneck-only guarantees.
major comments (2)
- Theorem 3.1 asserts that the constant 2 is sharp, but the text only gives a heuristic (a loop of persistence 4ε killed by 2ε-smoothing yields diagonal bottleneck cost 2ε). An explicit pair of Reeb graphs with d_Δ / d_I arbitrarily close to 2 (or a proof that no smaller universal constant works) is needed to justify the sharpness claim; otherwise rephrase as “the factor 2 is forced by the two-sided smoothing argument and is not an artifact of the proof technique.”
- Section 6 and Remark 6.1: the experiments label features “significant” under unsplit (a,b) plug-in estimation and empirically rate-corrected subsampling radii whose finite-sample coverage is not proved (Remark 5.1, Section B.4). The abstract and conclusions still present these as identifying statistically significant features. For a statistics journal, either (i) restrict the experimental claims to “features outside the calibrated band under the disclosed heuristic calibration,” with no 1−α language, or (ii) add a formal coverage result / split-sample protocol for the procedures actually used. The deterministic transfer from a valid Hausdorff radius to d_I and d_Δ is fine; the load-bearing gap is the data-driven radius itself.
minor comments (6)
- Figure 1 caption: “Matching colors identify the corresponding topological features… which must be inferred using the elder rule” is dense; a short pointer to which bars are Ord0/Ext0/Rel1/Ext1 would help non-specialists.
- Notation: R is used both for the Reeb graph and for the real line (e.g. covers of R). A consistent distinction (e.g. mathbb{R} vs script R) would reduce ambiguity in Sections 2–4.
- Corollary 5.3–5.4: the O((b_n/n)^{1/4}) remainder is inherited from Fasy et al.; stating the sample-size regime in which the authors treat the remainder as negligible in the experiments would help practitioners.
- Appendix A comparison with CMO18 is valuable; a one-line summary table of leading constants (PL vs Mapper vs MultiNerve) would make the improvement at the PL level easier to scan.
- Typos / style: “Carri` ere”, “Universit` a”, “Cˆ ote” appear with broken accents in the source; fix for the journal version. Also “dI-confidence” vs “d_I-confidence” inconsistently.
- Section 4.1: θ_f and μ_δ are well-defined, but a short remark that μ_δ is computable only if ω_f and geodesic interpolants are known (or bounded) would clarify the gap between theory and practice for non-Lipschitz filters.
Circularity Check
No significant circularity: stability, d_Δ–d_I comparison, and confidence regions are derived from covering radii and cosheaf interleavings, not from fitted targets or load-bearing self-citation.
full rationale
The load-bearing claims are Theorem 3.1 (d_Δ ≤ 2 d_I with sharp H0 constants), Theorems 4.1–4.2 (PL–Reeb interleaving stability under intrinsic/extrinsic covering-radius control), and Corollaries 5.1–5.4 (Hausdorff tails → interleaving balls). Each is proved from the definitions of constructible cosheaves, ε-interleavings, moduli of continuity, and (for extrinsic bounds) positive-reach distortion; the Ext1 argument uses a standard density reduction via functional distortion (Prop. C.2) that does not import the target inequality. Overlapping-author citations (e.g. CMO18) appear as related-work comparison and experimental baseline, not as uniqueness theorems or ansätze that force the new bounds. Numerical scale choices (unsplit (a,b) plug-in, rate-corrected subsampling) are explicitly labeled empirical calibrations (Remarks 5.1, 6.1) rather than first-principles predictions. Nothing reduces by construction to its own inputs.
Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger
free parameters (6)
- pilot constant C for (a,b) local-mass radius r_n =
2
- confidence level 1-α =
0.85
- subsample size rule b_n = floor(n / (log n)^{1.001}) =
power 1.001
- Mapper cover length χ and overlap =
χ=2δ; overlap 0.45
- Isomap nearest-neighbor count for intrinsic metric =
10
- rate-correction intrinsic dimension d =
2 (displayed experiments)
axioms (6)
- standard math Constructible R-spaces and Reeb–cosheaf equivalence (de Silva–Munch–Patel) so d_I is a metric up to isomorphism on Reeb graphs.
- domain assumption Positive reach of the support X implies Euclidean–intrinsic distortion d_X(x,y) ≤ 2τ arcsin(‖x−y‖/(2τ)) for ‖x−y‖<2τ (Boissonnat–Lieutier–Wintraecken).
- domain assumption (a,b)-standard lower mass bounds on metric balls yield exponential Hausdorff covering tails (Chazal et al.).
- domain assumption Fasy et al. subsampling quantile for Euclidean Hausdorff distance on compact manifolds without boundary, positive reach, noiseless sampling on M.
- domain assumption Filter f continuous with modulus of continuity ω_f w.r.t. intrinsic distance; (X,f) constructible.
- ad hoc to paper Rate-corrected radii δ_log, δ_pow are valid finite-sample calibrations of the raw Fasy radius.
invented entities (2)
-
PL-Reeb estimator R^{S_n,ρ}_δ (Reeb cosheaf of proximity graph with PL filter extension)
independent evidence
-
Mapper coarsening M_U of the PL-Reeb cosheaf with multivalued pushforward Ξ_I
independent evidence
read the original abstract
We develop confidence regions for Reeb graphs from finite samples using the interleaving distance. Given a point cloud equipped with a filter function, we construct a finite proximity graph, extend the filter linearly, and use the Reeb cosheaf of the resulting filtered graph as the primary estimator. Mapper graphs are then treated as controlled cover-based coarsenings of this estimator, separating the statistical approximation problem from the visualization problem. We prove stability bounds for the Reeb estimators obtained both using intrinsic and extrinsic metrics, the latter under positive-reach assumptions, and derive interleaving-distance confidence regions from either \((a,b)\)-standard sampling assumptions or subsampling-based Hausdorff scale estimates. We also compare this object-level metric viewpoint with persistence-based guarantees by showing that the extended-persistence pseudometric is bounded by twice the interleaving distance, with sharp constant \(1\) for the \(H_0\)-related components. Numerical experiments illustrate how statistically significant features can be identified and then projected to Mapper graphs for interpretation.
Figures
Reference graph
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discussion (0)
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