  This paper presents a diffusion based probabilistic interpretation of
spectral clustering and dimensionality reduction algorithms that use the
eigenvectors of the normalized graph Laplacian. Given the pairwise adjacency
matrix of all points, we define a diffusion distance between any two data
points and show that the low dimensional representation of the data by the
first few eigenvectors of the corresponding Markov matrix is optimal under a
certain mean squared error criterion. Furthermore, assuming that data points
are random samples from a density $p(\x) = e^{-U(\x)}$ we identify these
eigenvectors as discrete approximations of eigenfunctions of a Fokker-Planck
operator in a potential $2U(\x)$ with reflecting boundary conditions. Finally,
applying known results regarding the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the
continuous Fokker-Planck operator, we provide a mathematical justification for
the success of spectral clustering and dimensional reduction algorithms based
on these first few eigenvectors. This analysis elucidates, in terms of the
characteristics of diffusion processes, many empirical findings regarding
spectral clustering algorithms.
