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arXiv · 1510.05043

A cost function for similarity-based hierarchical clustering

Sanjoy Dasgupta
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Abstract

The development of algorithms for hierarchical clustering has been hampered by a shortage of precise objective functions. To help address this situation, we introduce a simple cost function on hierarchies over a set of points, given pairwise similarities between those points. We show that this criterion behaves sensibly in canonical instances and that it admits a top-down construction procedure with a provably good approximation ratio.

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Sanjoy Dasgupta. 2015-10-16. A cost function for similarity-based hierarchical clustering. https://arxiv.org/abs/1510.05043

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