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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chen, Zhongtian, Murfet, Daniel
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.18048
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author Chen, Zhongtian
Murfet, Daniel
author_facet Chen, Zhongtian
Murfet, Daniel
contents We develop a geometric account of sequence modelling that links patterns in the data to measurable properties of the loss landscape in transformer networks. First, we cast conditional sequence distributions into a Hilbert-space framework and apply tensor decompositions to identify their principal modes. Truncating the small-amplitude modes yields an effective data distribution that preserves dominant structure while discarding statistical detail. Second, we show theoretically that Local Learning Coefficient (LLC) estimates are insensitive to modes below a data-dependent threshold. Consequently, the LLC calculated in practice characterises the geometry of the effective rather than the true distribution. This insight clarifies why reliable LLC estimates can be obtained even when a network parameter is not a strict minimiser of the population loss, and it highlights how the inverse temperature in SGLD acts as a resolution dial on the landscape structure.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_18048
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Modes of Sequence Models and Learning Coefficients
Chen, Zhongtian
Murfet, Daniel
Machine Learning
We develop a geometric account of sequence modelling that links patterns in the data to measurable properties of the loss landscape in transformer networks. First, we cast conditional sequence distributions into a Hilbert-space framework and apply tensor decompositions to identify their principal modes. Truncating the small-amplitude modes yields an effective data distribution that preserves dominant structure while discarding statistical detail. Second, we show theoretically that Local Learning Coefficient (LLC) estimates are insensitive to modes below a data-dependent threshold. Consequently, the LLC calculated in practice characterises the geometry of the effective rather than the true distribution. This insight clarifies why reliable LLC estimates can be obtained even when a network parameter is not a strict minimiser of the population loss, and it highlights how the inverse temperature in SGLD acts as a resolution dial on the landscape structure.
title Modes of Sequence Models and Learning Coefficients
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.18048