Common-Individual Embedding for Dynamic Networks with Temporal Group Structure

Abstract

We propose STANE (Shared and Time-specific Adaptive Network Embedding), a new joint embedding framework for dynamic networks that captures both stable global structures and localized temporal variations. To further improve the model's adaptability to transient changes, we introduce Sparse STANE, which models time-specific changes as sparse perturbations, thereby improving interpretability. Unlike existing methods that either overlook cross-time similarities or enforce overly smooth evolution, Sparse STANE integrates temporal clustering with sparse deviation modeling to strike a flexible balance between persistence and change. We also provide non-asymptotic error guarantees of embeddings and show that our estimator can reliably identify changed node pairs when deviations are sparse. On synthetic and real-world political conflict networks, STANE and its extensions improve temporal clustering accuracy and structural recovery, outperforming state-of-the-art baselines. These results highlight the potential of STANE in applications such as international relations modeling, where both persistent and transient connections matter. Our findings underscore the power of structured dynamic embeddings for revealing interpretable patterns in network evolution.