arXiv:2608.09997cs.LGcs.CV2026-08

用拓扑方法追踪Transformer中表示点云的演化,揭示其如何从原始输入变成任务相关特征。

Transformer Geometry Observatory TGO-IV: Developmental Topology Observatory

论文配图:Transformer Geometry Observatory TGO-IV: Developmental Topology Observatory
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 基于持久同调构建词元表示点云的单纯复形,分析跨层拓扑演化。
  • 发现表示点云的拓扑结构在深层逐渐形成稳定的任务相关模式。
  • 适合对模型可解释性、深度学习几何结构感兴趣的科研人员。

Transformer 在自然语言处理和计算机视觉领域影响深远。随着对「Transformer 如何学习?」这一核心问题的关注增加,现有可解释性研究主要聚焦于单个层或网络整体的表征,而个体表征及其流形在各层间的演化过程仍缺乏深入探索。本文提出 Transformer Geometry Observatory-TGO-IV,引入拓扑框架,通过持久同调分析表示点云在各层之间的演化。不同于仅关注局部几何特性,TGO-IV 从词元级表示点云构建 Vietoris--Rips 单纯复形,并研究其持久拓扑签名在前向传播中的演变。该框架包含持久图、条形图、贝蒂曲线、持久景观、瓶颈距离与沃尔什斯坦距离等互补工具,实现对表示点云全局拓扑演化的全面分析。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Transformers have had a profound impact on the world of language processing and computer vision. As efforts to answer the million-dollar question of ``How does a Transformer learn?" have been increasing, existing interpretability studies primarily analyze representations at isolated layers or the network as a whole, while the developmental evolution of individual representations and its manifolds across transformer layers remains underexplored. With this work, we aim at providing a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of representations as the representation point cloud transforms across the layers; thereby attempting to isolate layers or establish a trend which comes closer to justifying how and when raw input representations evolve into task-relevant feature representations. Thus, Transformer Geometry Observatory-TGO-IV introduces a topological framework for analysing the evolution of Transformer representations through the lens of Persistent Homology. Rather than studying local geometric properties alone, TGO-IV constructs Vietoris--Rips simplicial complexes from token-level representation point clouds and investigates the evolution of their persistent topological signatures across Transformer layers. The proposed framework comprises complementary topological observatories including Persistence Diagrams, Barcode Diagrams, Betti Curves, Persistence Landscapes, Bottleneck Distance, and Wasserstein Distance, enabling a comprehensive analysis of how the global topology of representation point clouds develops throughout the forward pass.

Transformer可解释性拓扑分析持久同调

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