Scalable persistence pairing graphs on scalar fields with an application to porous media

Abstract

We present a scalable method for computing persistence pairing graphs from large cubical filtrations and use it to test whether graph organization among persistent classes contains information beyond persistence intervals alone. The method cancels equal-value pairs before global reduction, constructs the compressed complex in streaming form, and recovers graph transitions from one persistence reduction through projected relations and triangular event solves. We apply the method to 119 signed distance volumes from the DRP-372 porous media collection for permeability prediction. Each 256-cubed volume induces more than 135 million cubical cells before contraction, whereas the median compressed complex contains 37,471 generators. In validation grouped by material family, adding persistence pairing graph descriptors improves prediction over persistence summaries under both Ridge regression and partial least squares regression. In the stricter experiment that holds out one source project at a time, Ridge retains a modest improvement over persistence alone, although additional benefit beyond geometry and persistence is not consistent across projects. Two null models show that the observed persistence and graph coupling and edge target organization are strongly nonrandom, but neither uniquely explains the predictive improvement; the useful signal appears to reside mainly in coarser graph and event organization. Spatial analyses likewise distinguish persistence magnitude from graph prominence and reveal nonlocal organization among algebraically related persistence events. These results show that persistence pairing graphs provide structurally informative summaries beyond the barcode while exposing domain dependence and representative sensitivity that motivate more invariant relational descriptors.