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Physical networks become what they learn

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arxiv 2406.09689 v2 pith:EFMHGSV7 submitted 2024-06-14 cond-mat.dis-nn cond-mat.softcond-mat.stat-mech

classification cond-mat.dis-nncond-mat.softcond-mat.stat-mech
keywords physicalcostnetworksadaptationconductancesfunctionlandscapenode
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Physical networks can develop diverse responses, or functions, by design, evolution or learning. We focus on electrical networks of nodes connected by resistive edges. Such networks can learn by adapting edge conductances to lower a cost function that penalizes deviations from a desired response. The network must also satisfy Kirchhoff's law, balancing currents at nodes, or, equivalently, minimizing total power dissipation by adjusting node voltages. The adaptation is thus a double optimization process, in which a cost function is minimized with respect to conductances, while dissipated power is minimized with respect to node voltages. Here we study how this physical adaptation couples the cost landscape, the landscape of the cost function in the high-dimensional space of edge conductances, to the physical landscape, the dissipated power in the high-dimensional space of node voltages. We show how adaptation links the physical and cost Hessian matrices, suggesting that the physical response of networks to perturbations holds significant information about the functions to which they are adapted.

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Cited by 4 Pith papers

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  4. Microscopic imprints of learned solutions in adaptive resistor networks

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    The susceptibility of edges in a trained resistor network contains all physical information of the cost landscape and identifies the edges responsible for the learned function.

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