arXiv:2608. 06597v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: A scientific theory of deep learning, comprising learning dynamics and statistical properties of learned models, is rapidly gaining attention.
arXiv:2608. 09396v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Invariant learning seeks representations that remain predictive across environments, yet the behavior of its objectives along the regularization path is often opaque.
Invariant learning seeks representations that remain predictive across environments, yet the behavior of its objectives along the regularization path is often opaque. We address this objective-behavior gap by viewing representation learning as multimode magnetization and deriving, from concrete invariant-learning objectives, a Landau-type effective free energy whose low-order coefficients form objective signatures and induce distinct regularization phenotypes.
arXiv:2606. 17120v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Deep neural networks (DNNs) exhibit first order phase transitions under variations of the L2 regularization strength, with each transition marking the onset of a new learnable feature.
arXiv:2607. 10285v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We study how unsupervised autoencoders trained on microscopic spin configurations from the Ising model learn macroscopic, theory-relevant variables underlying the data-generating process.
arXiv:2608. 01833v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Grokking is a striking phenomenon in neural network training, where a model can undergo a prolonged period of pure memorization before abrupt generalization.
The paper presents a spectral theory explaining the phenomenon of grokking, where an initial fit to training data is followed by a delayed improvement in generalization. It shows that for homogeneous networks trained with squared loss and L₂ weight decay, residuals after memorization influence the neural tangent kernel (NTK) dynamics, leading to a transition from lazy to rich learning. The theory predicts that grokking timescales depend on the product of learning rate and weight decay, and that stronger decay can halt fitting, with empirical validation on modular addition tasks using MLPs and Transformers.
arXiv:2509. 24882v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Neural scaling laws underlie many of the recent advances in deep learning, yet their theoretical understanding remains largely confined to linear models.
arXiv:2606. 16013v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Interpreting machine-learning models has attracted increasing attention, particularly in the physical sciences, where one often seeks to understand the underlying mechanisms rather than merely make predictions.
arXiv:2604. 00230v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Neural collapse (NC) -- the convergence of penultimate-layer features to a simplex equiangular tight frame -- is well understood at equilibrium, but the dynamics governing its onset remain poorly characterised.
The paper introduces a pointwise generalization theory for fully connected deep neural networks, using a pointwise Riemannian Dimension derived from eigenvalues of learned feature representations across layers. This framework provides hypothesis-dependent, representation-aware generalization bounds that are significantly tighter than traditional size- or norm-based approaches, both theoretically and experimentally. The authors analytically identify structural properties that explain deep networks’ tractability and empirically show that the pointwise Riemannian Dimension captures feature compression, over‑parameterization effects, and optimizer bias.
arXiv:2606. 28242v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Understanding how performance scales jointly with model size and data is a central problem in modern machine learning.
arXiv:2607. 04135v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: The remarkable ability of modern neural networks to generalize improves with increasing network capacity, even when the number of model parameters or effective degrees of freedom exceeds the number of training data points.