Journal of Computer Applications ›› 2026, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (9): 2809-2819.DOI: 10.11772/j.issn.1001-9081.2025081025

• Artificial intelligence • Previous Articles    

Quaternion-based uncertain knowledge graph embedding

Renrui YIN, Guanfeng LI(), Shizhuo WANG, Yaya JIANG   

  1. School of Information Engineering,Ningxia University,Yinchuan Ningxia 750021,China
  • Received:2025-09-08 Revised:2025-11-13 Accepted:2025-11-14 Online:2025-11-21 Published:2026-09-10
  • Contact: Guanfeng LI
  • About author:YIN Renrui, born in 1999, M. S. candidate. Her research interests include uncertain knowledge graph embedding and reasoning, uncertainty detection in knowledge graphs.
    LI Guanfeng, born in 1979, Ph. D., associate professor. His research interests include knowledge engineering, intelligent computing.
    WANG Shizhuo, born in 2002, M. S. candidate. His research interests include knowledge graph reasoning, reinforcement learning.
    JIANG Yaya, born in 2002, M. S. candidate. Her research interests include uncertain knowledge graph reasoning, rule mining.
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China(62066038);Ningxia Natural Science Foundation(2024AAC03098);Ningxia High-level Talents Scientific Research Start-up Project(2023BSB03066)

基于四元数的不确定知识图谱嵌入

尹仁蕊, 李贯峰(), 王世卓, 蒋娅娅   

  1. 宁夏大学 信息工程学院,银川 750021
  • 通讯作者: 李贯峰
  • 作者简介:尹仁蕊(1999—),女,宁夏中卫人,硕士研究生,CCF会员,主要研究方向:不确定知识图谱嵌入和推理、知识图谱不确定性检测
    李贯峰(1979—),男,宁夏固原人,副教授,博士,CCF会员,主要研究方向:知识工程、智能计算
    王世卓(2002—),男,河南郑州人,硕士研究生,CCF会员,主要研究方向:知识图谱推理、强化学习
    蒋娅娅(2002—),女,甘肃甘谷人,硕士研究生,CCF会员,主要研究方向:不确定知识图谱推理、规则挖掘。
  • 基金资助:
    国家自然科学基金资助项目(62066038);宁夏自然科学基金资助项目(2024AAC03098);宁夏高层次人才科研启动项目(2023BSB03066)

Abstract:

The existing methods have made preliminary progress in Uncertain Knowledge Graph Embedding (UKGE), but still have multiple limitations, particularly in modeling complex relations. The UKGE framework can only model simple relation patterns such as symmetry. Although the complex-plane rotation model RotatE is simple and efficient, and can model multi-relation facts by complex rotations, its expressiveness is constrained by the two-dimensional complex space, making it difficult to model high-dimensional rotations, and it is prone to the “gimbal lock” problem, which limits further modeling of complex relations. To address these limitations, an uncertain knowledge graph embedding model based on quaternions, termed QUKGE, was proposed. In QUKGE, entities were represented as four-dimensional quaternion vectors, and relations were modeled as rotation operators in quaternion space. At the scoring function level, quaternion rotation was realized by utilizing the Hamilton product of entity and relation embeddings, thereby representing a variety of complex relation patterns systematically, including symmetry, asymmetry, inverse relations, commutativity, and non-commutativity. The three-dimensional rotation characteristics of quaternions effectively alleviate the “gimbal lock” problem in high-dimensional rotation and significantly enhance the capability to model complex relationships. To validate the effectiveness of QUKGE, five comparative experiments were conducted on three public uncertain knowledge graph datasets: CN15K, NL27K, and PPI5K. Experimental results demonstrate that on the NL27K dataset, QUKGE achieves a 2.9 percentage points improvement in F1 score and a 1.0 percentage point increase in accuracy compared to the MUKGE (Multiplex Uncertain Knowledge Graph Embedding) model on relational fact classification task, providing support for future research in UKGE.

Key words: Uncertain Knowledge Graph Embedding (UKGE), quaternion, complex relation modeling, rotation

摘要:

现有方法虽然在不确定知识图谱嵌入(UKGE)上取得了初步进展,但仍存在诸多不足,尤其在对复杂关系的建模方面表现有限。UKGE框架仅能刻画对称等简单关系模式。尽管复数平面上的旋转模型RotatE能借助复数旋转刻画多关系事实,简洁而高效,但它的表达能力受限于二维复数空间,难以刻画高维旋转,且易出现“万向锁”现象,限制了对复杂关系的进一步刻画。针对上述局限,提出一种基于四元数的不确定知识图谱嵌入模型QUKGE,该模型将实体表示为四维四元数向量,并将关系建模为四元数空间中的旋转算子。在评分函数层面,利用实体与关系的汉密尔顿积实现四元数旋转,从而系统地表征对称、反对称、逆关系、可交换及不可交换等复杂关系模式。四元数的三维旋转特性有效缓解了高维旋转中的“万向锁”,并显著提升了对复杂关系的刻画能力。为验证QUKGE的有效性,在CN15K、NL27K和PPI5K这3个公开不确定知识图谱数据集上进行5项对比实验。实验结果表明,QUKGE在NL27K数据集上与MUKGE(Multiplex Uncertain Knowledge Graph Embedding)模型相比,在关系事实分类任务中的F1分数与准确率分别提升了2.9和1.0个百分点,为UKGE的进一步研究提供了支撑。

关键词: 不确定知识图谱嵌入, 四元数, 复杂关系建模, 旋转

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