提出分层渐进逼近机制,让深度网络每层逐步优化输出,实现一次训练多层可用。
Progressive Approximation in Deep Residual Networks: Theory and Validation

- 将残差网络视为逐层逼近过程,证明深度增加时误差单调下降
- 提出LPA训练原则,使每层精准对齐残差目标,提升收敛稳定性
- 支持‘训练一次,用多个深度’,适合高效推理与多尺度部署
通用逼近定理保证了函数逼近的可行性,但未说明残差模型如何分配各层的逼近任务。本文将残差网络重构为逐层逼近过程,构建从输入到目标的逼近轨迹,并证明存在误差随深度单调下降的渐进轨迹。这表明残差网络可实现结构化、分步精炼,而非端到端黑箱映射。基于此,提出分层渐进逼近(LPA)训练原则,显式对齐每层与其残差目标,实现上述轨迹。LPA具有架构无关性:在残差前馈网络、ResNet及Transformer上,于复杂曲面拟合、图像分类和大语言模型生成/分类任务中均观察到渐进行为。关键优势在于支持‘训练一次,使用N个模型’——单一网络可在任意深度生成有效预测,无需重新训练,适用于高效浅层推理。本工作统一逼近理论与深度学习实践,为表征学习提供新视角,并构建灵活的多深度部署框架。代码将在接受后公开。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
The Universal Approximation Theorem (UAT) guarantees universal function approximation but does not explain how residual models distribute approximation across layers. We reframe residual networks as a layer-wise approximation process that builds an approximation trajectory from input to target, and prove the existence of progressive trajectories where error decreases monotonically with depth. It reveals that residual networks can implement structured, step-by-step refinement rather than end-to-end (E2E) black-box mapping. Building on this, we propose Layer-wise Progressive Approximation (LPA), a theoretically grounded training principle that explicitly aligns each layer with its residual target to realize such trajectories. LPA is architecture-agnostic: we observe progressive behavior in residual FNNs, ResNets, and Transformers across tasks including complex surface fitting, image classification, and NLP with LLMs for generation and classification. Crucially, this enables ``train once, use $N$ models": a single network yields useful predictions at every depth, supporting efficient shallow inference without retraining. Our work unifies approximation theory with practical deep learning, providing a new lens on representation learning and a flexible framework for multi-depth deployment. The source code will be released unpon acceptance at https://(open\_upon\_acceptance).
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