Internal Flow Signatures for Self-Checking and Refinement in LLMs

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Jeong, Sungheon, Yun, Sanggeon, Masukawa, Ryozo, Haung, Wenjun, Chen, Hanning, Imani, Mohsen
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Jeong, Sungheon
Yun, Sanggeon
Masukawa, Ryozo
Haung, Wenjun
Chen, Hanning
Imani, Mohsen
author_facet Jeong, Sungheon
Yun, Sanggeon
Masukawa, Ryozo
Haung, Wenjun
Chen, Hanning
Imani, Mohsen
contents Large language models can generate fluent answers that are unfaithful to the provided context, while many safeguards rely on external verification or a separate judge after generation. We introduce \emph{internal flow signatures} that audit decision formation from depthwise dynamics at a fixed inter-block monitoring boundary. The method stabilizes token-wise motion via bias-centered monitoring, then summarizes trajectories in compact \emph{moving} readout-aligned subspaces constructed from the top token and its close competitors within each depth window. Neighboring window frames are aligned by an orthogonal transport, yielding depth-comparable transported step lengths, turning angles, and subspace drift summaries that are invariant to within-window basis choices. A lightweight GRU validator trained on these signatures performs self-checking without modifying the base model. Beyond detection, the validator localizes a culprit depth event and enables a targeted refinement: the model rolls back to the culprit token and clamps an abnormal transported step at the identified block while preserving the orthogonal residual. The resulting pipeline provides actionable localization and low-overhead self-checking from internal decision dynamics. \emph{Code is available at} \texttt{github.com/EavnJeong/Internal-Flow-Signatures-for-Self-Checking-and-Refinement-in-LLMs}.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_01897
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Internal Flow Signatures for Self-Checking and Refinement in LLMs
Jeong, Sungheon
Yun, Sanggeon
Masukawa, Ryozo
Haung, Wenjun
Chen, Hanning
Imani, Mohsen
Machine Learning
Large language models can generate fluent answers that are unfaithful to the provided context, while many safeguards rely on external verification or a separate judge after generation. We introduce \emph{internal flow signatures} that audit decision formation from depthwise dynamics at a fixed inter-block monitoring boundary. The method stabilizes token-wise motion via bias-centered monitoring, then summarizes trajectories in compact \emph{moving} readout-aligned subspaces constructed from the top token and its close competitors within each depth window. Neighboring window frames are aligned by an orthogonal transport, yielding depth-comparable transported step lengths, turning angles, and subspace drift summaries that are invariant to within-window basis choices. A lightweight GRU validator trained on these signatures performs self-checking without modifying the base model. Beyond detection, the validator localizes a culprit depth event and enables a targeted refinement: the model rolls back to the culprit token and clamps an abnormal transported step at the identified block while preserving the orthogonal residual. The resulting pipeline provides actionable localization and low-overhead self-checking from internal decision dynamics. \emph{Code is available at} \texttt{github.com/EavnJeong/Internal-Flow-Signatures-for-Self-Checking-and-Refinement-in-LLMs}.
title Internal Flow Signatures for Self-Checking and Refinement in LLMs
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.01897