The Symmetric Perceptron: a Teacher-Student Scenario

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Catania, Giovanni, Decelle, Aurélien, Korpe, Suhanee
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Catania, Giovanni
Decelle, Aurélien
Korpe, Suhanee
author_facet Catania, Giovanni
Decelle, Aurélien
Korpe, Suhanee
contents We introduce and solve a teacher-student formulation of the symmetric binary Perceptron, turning a traditionally storage-oriented model into a planted inference problem with a guaranteed solution at any sample density. We adapt the formulation of the symmetric Perceptron which traditionally considers either the u-shaped potential or the rectangular one, by including labels in both regions. With this formulation, we analyze both the Bayes-optimal regime at for noise-less examples and the effect of thermal noise under two different potential/classification rules. Using annealed and quenched free-entropy calculations in the high-dimensional limit, we map the phase diagram in the three control parameters, namely the sample density $α$, the distance between the origin and one of the symmetric hyperplanes $κ$ and temperature $T$, and identify a robust scenario where learning is organized by a second-order instability that creates teacher-correlated suboptimal states, followed by a first-order transition to full alignment. We show how this structure depends on the choice of potential, the interplay between metastability of the suboptimal solution and its melting towards the planted configuration, which is relevant for Monte Carlo-based optimization algorithms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_25440
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Symmetric Perceptron: a Teacher-Student Scenario
Catania, Giovanni
Decelle, Aurélien
Korpe, Suhanee
Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
Statistical Mechanics
Machine Learning
We introduce and solve a teacher-student formulation of the symmetric binary Perceptron, turning a traditionally storage-oriented model into a planted inference problem with a guaranteed solution at any sample density. We adapt the formulation of the symmetric Perceptron which traditionally considers either the u-shaped potential or the rectangular one, by including labels in both regions. With this formulation, we analyze both the Bayes-optimal regime at for noise-less examples and the effect of thermal noise under two different potential/classification rules. Using annealed and quenched free-entropy calculations in the high-dimensional limit, we map the phase diagram in the three control parameters, namely the sample density $α$, the distance between the origin and one of the symmetric hyperplanes $κ$ and temperature $T$, and identify a robust scenario where learning is organized by a second-order instability that creates teacher-correlated suboptimal states, followed by a first-order transition to full alignment. We show how this structure depends on the choice of potential, the interplay between metastability of the suboptimal solution and its melting towards the planted configuration, which is relevant for Monte Carlo-based optimization algorithms.
title The Symmetric Perceptron: a Teacher-Student Scenario
topic Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
Statistical Mechanics
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.25440