{"paper":{"title":"Hierarchical Sparse Circuit Extraction from Billion-Parameter Language Models through Scalable Attribution Graph Decomposition","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":["cs.AI","cs.CL"],"primary_cat":"cs.LG","authors_text":"Mohammed Kaif Pasha, Mohammed Mudassir Uddin, Shahnawaz Alam","submitted_at":"2026-01-19T09:34:10Z","abstract_excerpt":"Extracting sparse circuits from billion-parameter transformers is constrained by $O(2^n)$ search cost and pervasive feature reuse across co-active pathways. Hierarchical Attribution Graph Decomposition (HAGD) addresses this through four stages: cross-layer transcoder training, spectral coarsening of attribution graphs, graph-neural-network (GNN)-guided hierarchical traversal, and causal intervention verification, reducing worst-case complexity to $O(n^2 \\log n)$. Per-layer transcoders trained on the RedPajama corpus yield monosemantic dictionaries; gradient-activation products form weighted at"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2601.12879","kind":"arxiv","version":2},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2601.12879/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}