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Xiao-Yang Li

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Preprint Aug 2026

Branch Geometry and Finite-Radius Sensitivity of Hard-ReLU Training

This work characterize the intervening regime in which the perturbation radius is proportional to the GD step, and identifies sufficient response regimes: differentiating training is a choice of perturbation resolution as well as a choice of derivative.

Xiao-Yang Li, Run-Ni Zhou, Xin Yan · 0 citations
#machine learning Preprint Aug 2026

Singular Curvature in ReLU Training:Differentiation and the Gradient-Flow Limit Need Not Commute

Gradient descent (GD) is explicit Euler for gradient flow, but a state-accurate continuous-time surrogate need not remain accurate after differentiation. At every fixed nonresonant step size, ordinary automatic differentiation exactly differentiates the executed hard-ReLU GD program. We prove that, over a fixed finite horizon, the GD states converge and these exact discrete derivatives approach an event-free regional propagator, whereas the derivative of the limiting flow also contains speed-normalized activation-event transfers. A prepoint Stieltjes representation separates the absolutely continuous regional Hessian from atomic interface curvature; one nonzero gradient jump produces an exactly rank-one endpoint discrepancy, and global convexity prevents complete multi-event cancellation whenever an event is strict. Nevertheless, a standard family of globally 1-strongly convex residual-ReLU squared-loss risks realizes arbitrarily large reciprocal sensitivity ratios on open initialization sets, with a uniform transversality margin. The same discrete-versus-flow decomposition extends to parameters and reverse-mode adjoints; resolved smoothing in the scalar or autonomous-normal regime and consistent event localization recover the flow sensitivity. The results concern deterministic full-batch, finite-horizon dynamics with a stable finite itinerary of separated same-direction transverse events; they are consistency theorems, not prevalence claims for large-scale training.

Xiao-Yang Li, Run-Ni Zhou · 0 citations

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