The paper introduces a world model that learns to predict the evolution of physical systems while respecting key physical principles. By hard‑coding a general structure—generating dynamics from the gradient of a learned energy via a fixed reversible operator and imposing constraints on energy, dissipation, and interventions—the model achieves second‑law compatible dissipation, accurate responses to parameter changes, long‑term stability, and robustness to disturbances. Experiments on an electromagnetic cavity, a particle‑in‑cell grid, and shallow‑water fluid demonstrate that the model can recover accurate constitutive functions, distinguish conserving from dissipating regimes, and transfer learned physics to unseen conditions, outperforming unconstrained models.
By Yufeng Wang, Parivesh Priye, Lu Wei, Haibin Ling
arXiv:2609.23381v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Before a machine can discover a physical law, it must discover what its measurements are: which observations live on cells, which are intensive or exte...
By Linzhe Zhang, Changming Xu
The paper presents a nonlinear dissipative dynamical model of human learning, featuring a concept‑transfer matrix, per‑concept forgetting rates, and a saturating practice‑response gain. It proves a structural identifiability theorem that guarantees exact parameter recovery under explicit excitation conditions, provides closed‑form recovery for the two‑concept case, and introduces a fast, L‑stable numerical scheme enabling estimation on large learner cohorts. Empirical results show exact recovery on synthetic data with designed excitation, but failure to recover on large observational benchmarks, illustrating a sharp boundary between identifiable and unidentifiable regimes and offering a validation protocol for interpretability claims.
By Arman Kostanian, Armen Beklaryan
LLM-IDEA is an identifiability‑driven experimental agent that guides large language model scientists in autonomous discovery of mechanistic world models. It evaluates whether a plateau in learning is due to the agent’s capability limits, the model’s resolvability within the design class, or a certified exhaustion of the experiment space. The system demonstrates its effectiveness across benchmarks such as ODEBench, DiscoverPhysics, and a custom Alien Universe testbed, consistently identifying when additional experiments are futile and when new experimental designs are required.
The paper introduces LLM-IDEA, an identifiability‑driven experimental agent that guides large language model scientists in closed‑loop discovery of mechanistic world models. It incorporates an identifiability engine that classifies experimental plateaus as capability limits, resolvable within the design class, or certified exhausted, and demonstrates its effectiveness on benchmarks such as ODEBench, DiscoverPhysics, and a custom Alien Universe testbed. The agent’s ability to distinguish when further experimentation is futile versus when new designs are needed improves the efficiency and reliability of autonomous scientific discovery.
By Surya Shetty, Ulisses Braga-Neto
The paper investigates when the integrated information measure ζ (phi) can be reliably identified from finite, noisy experiments in small stochastic networks. It shows that even identical input‑output behavior can hide large differences in phi, that partial recordings impose hard precision limits, and that phi is highly sensitive to infinitesimal mechanism changes, often misreported by surrogate models. The authors prove that a lower bound on phi can be certified with controlled experiments and quantify the sample size needed for statistical confidence.
By Linqian Wu, Diaoxuan He
arXiv:2608. 05702v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Scientific machine learning commonly validates models at the level of a subdomain, a benchmark split, or an explanation for one prediction.
By Gnankan Landry Regis N'guessan, Bum Jun Kim
The paper reports on a self‑improving science agent that has admitted 252 scientific relations and uses Minimum Description Length (MDL) compression ratios as an unsupervised epistemic grader. The MDL‑ranked top discoveries match canonical physical laws (e.g., vis‑vis‑a, Balmer/Rydberg) with strong statistical enrichment and no counterexamples, while 86 % of the agent’s ledger entries compress poorly (cr≈1) and are identified as statistical regularities rather than true laws. The study introduces a dual‑axis bookkeeping system separating prediction value (R²) from compression value (cr), demonstrates its robustness, and presents falsifiable predictions.
By Wenbin Mao, Pei Zou
arXiv:2608. 10172v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Mechanistic interpretability explains models by identifying circuits inside them, but has no way to tell whether a circuit is a property of the model or an artifact of the method that found it.
By Ashim Dhor, Pin-Yu Chen
The paper demonstrates that learned simulators can fail in two distinct ways when conditions change: long‑horizon drift due to accumulated errors and incorrect responses to interventions on physical parameters. By adding a symplectic integrator to preserve conservative dynamics, rollouts remain stable for up to 100× the training horizon, while encoding physical coupling via explicit linear factorization allows the model to generalize to unseen signs of that coupling. The study shows that stability and counterfactual generalization arise from separate structural choices, enabling designers to impose each property independently.
By Yufeng Wang, Parivesh Priye, Lu Wei, Haibin Ling
arXiv:2610.02252v1 Announce Type: cross
Abstract: Many scientific questions require reasoning about what was never observed: What if the conditions, interventions, or history had been different? Mode...
By Dingling Yao, Kahaan Gandhi, Valentin Duruisseaux, Boris Bonev, Francesco Locatello, Anima Anandkumar
The paper introduces the concept of task‑conditioned active observability, defining the minimal interaction cost needed for an autonomous agent to identify task‑relevant states while guaranteeing safe abstention. It formalizes this complexity, proving that task‑predictive equivalence yields a unique minimal sufficient quotient that preserves complexity and eliminates unnecessary distinctions. The authors present theoretical characterizations for deterministic and noisy regimes, and demonstrate a certified observer that reduces sensor usage and model steps while maintaining zero false acceptances in extensive high‑dimensional trials.
By Linzhe Zhang, Changming Xu