Topologically-Stabilized Graph Neural Networks: Empirical Robustness Across Domains

Abstract

Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have become the standard for graph representation learning but remain vulnerable to structural perturbations. We propose a novel framework that integrates persistent homology features with stability regularization to enhance robustness. Building on the stability theorems of persistent homology \cite{cohen2007stability}, our method combines GIN architectures with multi-scale topological features extracted from persistence images, enforced by Hiraoka-Kusano-inspired stability constraints. Across six diverse datasets spanning biochemical, social, and collaboration networks , our approach demonstrates exceptional robustness to edge perturbations while maintaining competitive accuracy. Notably, we observe minimal performance degradation (0-4\% on most datasets) under perturbation, significantly outperforming baseline stability. Our work provides both a theoretically-grounded and empirically-validated approach to robust graph learning that aligns with recent advances in topological regularization