  We study p-Laplacians and spectral clustering for a recently proposed
hypergraph model that incorporates edge-dependent vertex weights (EDVW). These
weights can reflect different importance of vertices within a hyperedge, thus
conferring the hypergraph model higher expressivity and flexibility. By
constructing submodular EDVW-based splitting functions, we convert hypergraphs
with EDVW into submodular hypergraphs for which the spectral theory is better
developed. In this way, existing concepts and theorems such as p-Laplacians and
Cheeger inequalities proposed under the submodular hypergraph setting can be
directly extended to hypergraphs with EDVW. For submodular hypergraphs with
EDVW-based splitting functions, we propose an efficient algorithm to compute
the eigenvector associated with the second smallest eigenvalue of the
hypergraph 1-Laplacian. We then utilize this eigenvector to cluster the
vertices, achieving higher clustering accuracy than traditional spectral
clustering based on the 2-Laplacian. More broadly, the proposed algorithm works
for all submodular hypergraphs that are graph reducible. Numerical experiments
using real-world data demonstrate the effectiveness of combining spectral
clustering based on the 1-Laplacian and EDVW.
