Symmetry Breaking at the Edge of Stability via Central Flow Analysis
Read the original on arXiv Machine Learning →The paper investigates how continuous symmetries in neural networks, which give rise to conserved quantities under gradient flow, behave when training with finite‑step gradient descent at the edge of stability (EOS). By applying central flow dynamics, the authors show that curvature corrections cause a finite‑dimensional drift driven by oscillation covariance along critical parameter directions. They analyze this effect in a scalar two‑layer model, two‑layer matrix factorisation, and a two‑layer ReLU network, demonstrating which conservation laws persist or break under EOS conditions.
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