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Maximum likelihood degree of the $\beta$-stochastic blockmodel

Cashous Bortner, Jennifer Garbett, Elizabeth Gross, Naomi Krawzik, Christopher McClain and Derek Young

Vol. 16 (2025), No. 1, 77–94
Abstract

Log-linear exponential random graph models are a specific class of statistical network models that have a log-linear representation. This class includes many stochastic blockmodel variants. We focus on β-stochastic blockmodels, which combine the β-model with a stochastic blockmodel. Here, using recent results by Almendra-Hernández, De Loera, and Petrović, which describe a Markov basis for β-stochastic block model, we give a closed form formula for the maximum likelihood degree of a β-stochastic blockmodel. The maximum likelihood degree is the number of complex solutions to the likelihood equations. In the case of the β-stochastic blockmodel, the maximum likelihood degree factors into a product of Eulerian numbers.

Keywords
maximum likelihood degree, beta-stochastic blockmodel, exponential random graph models, log-linear models, Eulerian numbers
Mathematical Subject Classification
Primary: 13F65, 14M25, 62R01, 90B15
Milestones
Received: 21 October 2024
Revised: 10 January 2025
Accepted: 21 January 2025
Published: 10 March 2025
Authors
Cashous Bortner
California State University, Stanislaus
Turlock, CA
United States
Jennifer Garbett
Lenoir-Rhyne University
Hickory, NC
United States
Elizabeth Gross
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
Honolulu, HI
United States
Naomi Krawzik
Sam Houston State University
Huntsville, TX
United States
Christopher McClain
West Virginia University Institute of Technology
Beckley, WV
United States
Derek Young
Mount Holyoke College
South Hadley, MA
United States