Clustering

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Overview

Clustering seeks useful groupings when labels are absent or incomplete, helping reveal structure in data such as text, images, graphs, time series, and scientific measurements. Methods include centroid-based k-means, density and hierarchical clustering, graph and spectral methods, mixture models, and newer approaches that learn embeddings or use optimal transport; fairness, privacy, streaming, and federated settings add further constraints. Work also studies how to choose the number of clusters and assess stability, uncertainty, interpretability, and statistical significance. No single method works best across data types: deep methods do not consistently beat strong conventional algorithms, and reliable validation remains a central challenge.

Latest papers

CardsList

342 papers31 papers in the last four weeks, up 11% on the four weeks before. 0.2% of all new papers.

  1. Multi-Vector Index Compression in Any Modality

    Feb 24, 2026Hanxiang Qin, Alexander Martin, Rohan Jha +3Multi-Vector RetrievalEmbedding Compression

    Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

  2. SODA-CitrON: Static Object Data Association by Clustering Multi-Modal Sensor Detections Online

    Feb 24, 2026Jan Nausner, Kilian Wohlleben, Michael HubnerData AssociationMultimodal Sensor Fusion

    Center for Digital Safety & Security, Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Vienna, Austria

  3. Exploring Anti-Aging Literature via ConvexTopics and Large Language Models

    Feb 23, 2026Lana E. Yeganova, Won G. Kim, Shubo Tian +4Topic ModelingClustering

    Division of Intramural Research (DIR), NLM, NIH, Bethesda, MD USA 20894

  4. AuditoryHuM: Auditory Scene Label Generation and Clustering using Human-MLLM Collaboration

    Feb 23, 2026Henry Zhong, Jörg M. Buchholz, Julian Maclaren +2ClusteringLLM-Assisted Annotation

    Australian Hearing Hub, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia · Google Research Australia, Sydney, Australia

  5. CAKE: Confidence in Assignments via K-partition Ensembles

    Feb 20, 2026Aggelos Semoglou, John PavlopoulosClusteringUnsupervised Clustering

    Department of Informatics, Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, Greece · Archimedes Research Unit, Athena Research Center, Athens, Greece

  6. Explaining AutoClustering: Uncovering Meta-Feature Contribution in AutoML for Clustering

    Feb 20, 2026Matheus Camilo da Silva, Leonardo Arrighi, Ana Carolina Lorena +1Automated Machine LearningMeta-Learning

    Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Geosciences, University of Trieste, Piazzale Europa, 1, 34127 Trieste TS, Italy. · Division of Computer Science, Aeronautics Institute of Technology, Praça Marechal Eduardo Gomes, 50, 12228-900 São José dos Campos SP, Brazil.

  7. SubQuad: Near-Quadratic-Free Structure Inference with Distribution-Balanced Objectives in Adaptive Receptor framework

    Feb 19, 2026Rong Fu, Zijian Zhang, Kun Liu +3ClusteringApproximate Nearest Neighbor Search

    Independent Researcher

  8. On the Hardness of Approximation of the Fair k-Center Problem

    Feb 18, 2026Suhas ThejaswiApproximation AlgorithmsClustering

    Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, Finland

  9. Neighborhood Stability as a Measure of Nearest Neighbor Searchability

    Feb 18, 2026Thomas Vecchiato, Sebastian BruchApproximate Nearest Neighbor SearchClustering

    University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark · Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

  10. Empirical Cumulative Distribution Function Clustering for LLM-based Agent System Analysis

    Feb 18, 2026Chihiro Watanabe, Jingyu SunLLM Agent EvaluationLanguage Model Generation Evaluation

    NTT Computer and Data Science Laboratories , 3-9-11, Midori-cho, Musashino-shi, Tokyo, Japan

  11. Khatri-Rao Clustering for Data Summarization

    Feb 17, 2026Martino Ciaperoni, Collin Leiber, Aristides Gionis +1ClusteringDeep Clustering

    Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa, Italy · Aalto University Espoo, Finland · KTH Royal Institute of Technology Digital Futures Stockholm, Sweden

  12. Perspectives - Interactive Document Clustering in the Discourse Analysis Tool Suite

    Feb 17, 2026Tim Fischer, Chris BiemannClustering

    Language Technology Group, Department of Informatics, University of Hamburg, Germany

  13. Doubly Stochastic Mean-Shift Clustering

    Feb 17, 2026Tom Trigano, Yann Sepulcre, Itshak LapidotClusteringUnsupervised Clustering

    Shamoon College of Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering, Ashdod, Israel · Sapir Academic College, Department of Engineering, Sderot, Israel · Afeka Tel-Aviv Academic College of Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering, Israel +1

  14. A Pragmatic Method for Comparing Clusterings with Overlaps and Outliers

    Feb 16, 2026Ryan DeWolfe, Paweł Prałat, François ThébergeClusteringUnsupervised Clustering

    Department of Mathematics, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Canada · Tutte Institute for Mathematics and Computing, Ottawa, Canada

  15. MacNet: An End-to-End Manifold-Constrained Adaptive Clustering Network for Interpretable Whole Slide Image Classification

    Feb 16, 2026Mingrui Ma, Chentao Li, Pan Huang +1Histopathology Image ClassificationExplainable Medical Image Analysis

    School of Computer Science and Technology, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, China · Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Xinjiang 830011, China · Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA +1

  16. Prototype Instance-semantic Disentanglement with Low-rank Regularized Subspace Clustering for WSIs Explainable Recognition

    Feb 16, 2026Chentao Li, Pan HuangWhole-Slide Image AnalysisHistopathology Image Classification

  17. Incremental (k, z)-Clustering on Graphs

    Feb 9, 2026Emilio Cruciani, Sebastian Forster, Antonis SkarlatosClusteringGraph Clustering

    European University of Rome, Italy. · Department of Computer Science, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria. · Department of Computer Science, University of Warwick, Coventry, England.

  18. TabClustPFN: A Prior-data Fitted Network for Tabular Data Clustering

    Jan 29, 2026Tianqi Zhao, Guanyang Wang, Yan Shuo Tan +1Cluster Number EstimationClustering

    Renmin University of China · Rutgers University · National University of Singapore +1

  19. CROCS: A Two-Stage Clustering Framework for Behaviour-Centric Consumer Segmentation with Smart Meter Data

    Jan 15, 2026Luke W. Yerbury, Ricardo J. G. B. Campello, G. C. Livingston +2ClusteringDemand Response

  20. Nonparametric Kernel Clustering with Bandit Feedback

    Jan 12, 2026Victor Thuot, Sebastian Vogt, Debarghya Ghoshdastidar +1ClusteringMulti-Armed Bandits

    MISTEA, UMPA-ENSL · LRR-TUM · MISTEA

  21. A Fast and Effective Method for Euclidean Anticlustering: The Assignment-Based-Anticlustering Algorithm

    Jan 9, 2026Philipp Baumann, Olivier Goldschmidt, Dorit S. Hochbaum +1ClusteringCombinatorial Optimization

    Department of Business Administration, University of Bern, Engehaldenstr. 4, 3012 Bern, Switzerland · Riverside County Office of Education, Riverside, CA 92501, USA · Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

  22. Finite Topological Space Filtrations: A Topological Framework for Data Analysis

    Dec 29, 2025Selçuk KayacanClusteringPersistent Homology

    Bahçeşehir University, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey

  23. Persistent Multiscale Density-based Clustering

    Dec 18, 2025Daniël Bot, Leland McInnes, Jan AertsClusteringUnsupervised Clustering

    1UHasselt, Data Science Institute (DSI) · 2Tutte Institute for Mathematics and Computing · 3KU Leuven, Augmented Intelligence for Data Analytics Lab, Department of Biosystems

  24. BalLOT: Balanced kk-means clustering with optimal transport

    Dec 5, 2025Wenyan Luo, Dustin G. MixonClusteringNonconvex Optimization

    Department of Mathematics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA · Translational Data Analytics Institute, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

  25. ClusterFusion: Hybrid Clustering with Embedding Guidance and LLM Adaptation

    Dec 4, 2025Yiming Xu, Yuan Yuan, Vijay Viswanathan +1ClusteringText Clustering

    Adobe · Carnegie Mellon University

  26. Agentic AI for Clustering, Relationship Discovery, and Semantic Trading in Prediction Markets

    Dec 2, 2025Agostino Capponi, Alfio Gliozzo, Brian ZhuRelation ExtractionClustering

    Columbia University, Columbia Business School · IBM · Columbia University

  27. Mixed Data Clustering Survey and Challenges

    Nov 27, 2025Guillaume Guerard, Sonia DjebaliClustering

    L´eonard de Vinci Pˆole Universitaire, Research Center, 12 Avenue L´eonard de Vinci, Paris La D´efense, 92916, France.

  28. DRtool: An Interactive Tool for Analyzing High-Dimensional Clusterings

    Sep 4, 2025Justin Lin, Julia FukuyamaClustering

    Department of Mathematics, Indiana University · Department of Statistics, Indiana University

  29. Shapley-Inspired Feature Weighting in kk-means with No Additional Hyperparameters

    Aug 11, 2025Richard J. Fawley, Renato Cordeiro de AmorimClusteringUnsupervised Clustering

    School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex, Wivenhoe, UK.

  30. funOCLUST: Clustering Functional Data with Outliers

    Jul 31, 2025Katharine M. Clark, Paul D. McNicholasFunctional Data AnalysisClustering

    Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Trent University, Ontario, Canada. · Department of Mathematics & Statistics, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada.