Title: Generalized Sobolev IPM for Graph-Based Measures
Primary area: learning on graphs and other geometries & topologies
Keywords: Sobolev IPM, Orlicz-Wasserstein, generalized Sobolev transport, Orlicz geometric structure, Lp structure, probability measures supported on a graph, Orlicz-Sobolev norm, Musielak norm

Abstract: We study the Sobolev IPM problem for measures supported on a graph metric space, where critic function is constrained to lie within the unit ball defined by Sobolev norm. While Le et al. (2025) achieved scalable computation by relating Sobolev norm to weighted $L^p$-norm, the resulting framework remains intrinsically bound to $L^p$ geometric structure, limiting its ability to incorporate alternative structural priors beyond the $L^p$ geometry paradigm. To overcome this limitation, we propose to generalize Sobolev IPM through the lens of *Orlicz geometric structure*, which employs convex functions to capture nuanced geometric relationships, building upon recent advances in optimal transport theory---particularly Orlicz-Wasserstein (OW) and generalized Sobolev transport---that have proven instrumental in advancing machine learning methodologies. This generalization encompasses classical Sobolev IPM as a special case while accommodating diverse geometric priors beyond traditional $L^p$ structure. It however brings up significant computational hurdles that compound those already inherent in Sobolev IPM. To address these challenges, we establish a novel theoretical connection between Orlicz-Sobolev norm and Musielak norm which facilitates a novel regularization for the generalized Sobolev IPM (GSI). By further exploiting the underlying graph structure, we show that GSI with Musielak regularization (GSI-M) reduces to a simple *univariate optimization* problem, achieving remarkably computational efficiency. Empirically, GSI-M is several-order faster than the popular OW in computation, and demonstrates its practical advantages in comparing probability measures on a given graph for document classification and several tasks in topological data analysis.

TL;DR: We leverage convex functions to generalize Sobolev IPM beyond Lp geometric structure, and propose a novel regularization for the generalized Sobolev IPM to compute it efficiently.