Linear Mode Connectivity under Data Shifts for Deep Ensembles of Image Classifiers

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Hepburn, C., Zielke, T., Raulf, A. P.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Hepburn, C.
Zielke, T.
Raulf, A. P.
author_facet Hepburn, C.
Zielke, T.
Raulf, A. P.
contents The phenomenon of linear mode connectivity (LMC) links several aspects of deep learning, including training stability under noisy stochastic gradients, the smoothness and generalization of local minima (basins), the similarity and functional diversity of sampled models, and architectural effects on data processing. In this work, we experimentally study LMC under data shifts and identify conditions that mitigate their impact. We interpret data shifts as an additional source of stochastic gradient noise, which can be reduced through small learning rates and large batch sizes. These parameters influence whether models converge to the same local minimum or to regions of the loss landscape with varying smoothness and generalization. Although models sampled via LMC tend to make similar errors more frequently than those converging to different basins, the benefit of LMC lies in balancing training efficiency against the gains achieved from larger, more diverse ensembles. Code and supplementary materials will be made publicly available at https://github.com/DLR-KI/LMC in due course.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_04514
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Linear Mode Connectivity under Data Shifts for Deep Ensembles of Image Classifiers
Hepburn, C.
Zielke, T.
Raulf, A. P.
Machine Learning
The phenomenon of linear mode connectivity (LMC) links several aspects of deep learning, including training stability under noisy stochastic gradients, the smoothness and generalization of local minima (basins), the similarity and functional diversity of sampled models, and architectural effects on data processing. In this work, we experimentally study LMC under data shifts and identify conditions that mitigate their impact. We interpret data shifts as an additional source of stochastic gradient noise, which can be reduced through small learning rates and large batch sizes. These parameters influence whether models converge to the same local minimum or to regions of the loss landscape with varying smoothness and generalization. Although models sampled via LMC tend to make similar errors more frequently than those converging to different basins, the benefit of LMC lies in balancing training efficiency against the gains achieved from larger, more diverse ensembles. Code and supplementary materials will be made publicly available at https://github.com/DLR-KI/LMC in due course.
title Linear Mode Connectivity under Data Shifts for Deep Ensembles of Image Classifiers
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.04514