Disease Is a Spectral Perturbation

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Mayfield, John D., Rosen, Matthew S.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Mayfield, John D.
Rosen, Matthew S.
author_facet Mayfield, John D.
Rosen, Matthew S.
contents We propose a novel method of understanding disease transformation from a healthy baseline with biomarker-level explainability. By modeling the biomarker covariance matrices of healthy controls and disease states, the perturbation can be individually characterized to accomplish mechanistic explanations of disease trajectories, both at a molecular level and for individual patients. Given a cohort of n patients each measured on p biomarkers, we define the biomarker "Hamiltonian" H = X^T X / n \in R^{p \times p}, where X \in R^{n \times p} is the covariant biomarker matrix. The eigenvectors of H define a set of normal modes of biomarker coordination, and the eigenvalues quantify the energy carried by each mode. In the healthy state, the reference Hamiltonian H_0 governs this structure where disease perturbs H_0 by an additive operator ΔH, thus shifting eigenvalues and rotating eigenvectors in proportion to the severity of pathological disruption. We formalize this framework, derive the spectral change given a disease perturbation, and demonstrate that the projection of a newly diagnosed patient's cumulative biomarker covariance structure onto disease-discriminant eigenmodes constitutes an optimal prognostic statistic for greater precision in disease prognosis. This work serves as a veritable white paper with application across a panoply of disease frameworks from cancer to neurodegenerative disorders.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_02949
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Disease Is a Spectral Perturbation
Mayfield, John D.
Rosen, Matthew S.
Machine Learning
We propose a novel method of understanding disease transformation from a healthy baseline with biomarker-level explainability. By modeling the biomarker covariance matrices of healthy controls and disease states, the perturbation can be individually characterized to accomplish mechanistic explanations of disease trajectories, both at a molecular level and for individual patients. Given a cohort of n patients each measured on p biomarkers, we define the biomarker "Hamiltonian" H = X^T X / n \in R^{p \times p}, where X \in R^{n \times p} is the covariant biomarker matrix. The eigenvectors of H define a set of normal modes of biomarker coordination, and the eigenvalues quantify the energy carried by each mode. In the healthy state, the reference Hamiltonian H_0 governs this structure where disease perturbs H_0 by an additive operator ΔH, thus shifting eigenvalues and rotating eigenvectors in proportion to the severity of pathological disruption. We formalize this framework, derive the spectral change given a disease perturbation, and demonstrate that the projection of a newly diagnosed patient's cumulative biomarker covariance structure onto disease-discriminant eigenmodes constitutes an optimal prognostic statistic for greater precision in disease prognosis. This work serves as a veritable white paper with application across a panoply of disease frameworks from cancer to neurodegenerative disorders.
title Disease Is a Spectral Perturbation
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.02949