arXiv Machine Learning

Learn the Directions, Normalize the Gains: Post-Training Normalization for LoRA

The paper introduces LoRA‑Norm, a post‑training normalization technique for Low‑Rank Adaptation (LoRA) that rebalances the gains of learned singular directions without altering the directions themselves. LoRA‑Norm uses spectral rebalancing and nuclear‑norm restoration to preserve total spectral mass, requiring no calibration data or extra training and adding no inference overhead. Experiments on two backbones and three adaptation tasks show that LoRA‑Norm improves both specialization and capability retention, outperforming other post‑hoc spectral pruning and gradient‑guided editing methods.

arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 1

Normalized Low-Rank Adaptation

Normalized Low-Rank Adaptation (NoRA) is a lightweight enhancement to the widely used LoRA technique that normalizes the down‑projection matrices during training. By doing so, NoRA stabilizes early optimization dynamics, accelerates convergence, and improves performance across pretraining, supervised fine‑tuning, and reinforcement learning. The method adds no extra trainable parameters or inference‑time cost, making it broadly applicable.

By Jiale Kang, Ziyin Yue, Zheng Zhan, Yangyi Huang, Weiyang Liu
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 14

Rank-Efficient LoRA via Joint Tangent-Space Optimization under Isotropic Curvature

The paper introduces ISO-LoRA, an optimizer that improves rank utilization in Low‑Rank Adaptation (LoRA) by coupling factor updates through spectral descent on the induced tangent perturbation in weight space. Experiments on GPT‑2 adaptation show that standard optimizers like AdamW concentrate updates in a few singular directions, whereas ISO-LoRA distributes energy more evenly, leading to higher effective rank and better downstream performance across 0.1B‑7B models. The authors provide theoretical guarantees under a stylized spiked‑gradient model and demonstrate that ISO-LoRA consistently outperforms factor‑wise optimizers, especially at moderate‑to‑large LoRA ranks.

By Zihan Zhu, Zhehang Du, Xuyang Chen, Tim Tsz-Kit Lau, Jiayuan Wu, X. Y. Han, Qi Long, Weijie Su
arXiv AI
Sep 3

TaRA: Training-Aware Low-Rank Adaptation Initialization

TaRA: Training-Aware Low-Rank Adaptation Initialization proposes a new way to initialize LoRA by aligning the gradients of low‑rank factors with those of the full‑rank weight matrix. This approach directly incorporates training dynamics, improving gradient fidelity at the start of fine‑tuning while adding negligible computational cost. Experiments on a variety of challenging fine‑tuning tasks show that TaRA consistently outperforms existing state‑of‑the‑art initialization methods, offering a simple, robust, and scalable solution for effective LoRA initialization.

By Taehyeon Kim, Eunhyeok Park
arXiv AI
Jun 12

The Hidden Power of Scaling Factor in LoRA Optimization

arXiv:2606. 12883v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: In Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA), the scaling factor $\alpha$ is often treated as a mere complement to the learning rate, yet its role in optimization remains poorly understood.

By Zicheng Zhang, Haoran Li, Jiaxing Wang, Guoqiang Gong, Anqi Li, Yudong Hu, Ting Xiong, Yurong Gao, Junxing Hu, Zhida Jiang, Yifeng Zhang, Pengzhang Liu, Qixia Jiang
Hugging Face Trending Papers
Jun 11

The Hidden Power of Scaling Factor in LoRA Optimization

In Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA), the scaling factor $α$ is often treated as a mere complement to the learning rate, yet its role in optimization remains poorly understood. In this paper, we reveal that the scaling factor $α$ and the learning rate function differently, with $α$ emerging as the dominant driver of effective optimization, delivering gains that cannot be replicated by learning rate scaling alone.