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arXiv2026

Low-Power End-to-End Cochlear Implant Speech Denoising with Spiking Neural Networks

Cochlear implants (CI) restore hearing for individuals with severe to profound hearing loss. However, CI users often struggle to understand speech in noisy environments. Deep neural networks (DNN) have shown promise in enhancing speech for CI users, yet their high energy demands make them non-ideal for low-power CI processors. Spiking neural networks (SNN), on the other hand, offer comparable performance with significantly lower energy consumption. Hence, we propose a novel SNN inspired by the Deep ACE architecture that simultaneously performs speech enhancement and CI coding. Our model achieves competitive vocoded short-time objective intelligibility (VSTOI) and signal-to-noise ratio improvement (SNRi) scores compared to Deep ACE, while achieving more than a sixfold reduction in energy consumption.

cs.SD↗
arXiv2026

Understanding Deep Learning via Notions of Rank

Despite the extreme popularity of deep learning in science and industry, its formal understanding is limited. This thesis puts forth notions of rank as key for developing a theory of deep learning, focusing on the fundamental aspects of generalization and expressiveness. In particular, we establish that gradient-based training can induce an implicit regularization towards low rank for several neural network architectures, and demonstrate empirically that this phenomenon may facilitate an explanation of generalization over natural data (e.g., audio, images, and text). Then, we characterize the ability of graph neural networks to model interactions via a notion of rank, which is commonly used for quantifying entanglement in quantum physics. A central tool underlying these results is a connection between neural networks and tensor factorizations. Practical implications of our theory for designing explicit regularization schemes and data preprocessing algorithms are presented.

cs.LG↗
arXiv2026

The thermodynamic freedom of a thermodynamic computer

Thermodynamic computers are stochastic physical devices designed to perform calculations at the thermal energy scale. Their operation is constrained by the equations of stochastic thermodynamics, among which are a set of bounds, known as speed limits, that relate a thermodynamic computer's run time to its computational progress and the heat it dissipates. Using the Wasserstein speed limit we assess the thermodynamic efficiency of a simulation model of a thermodynamic computer trained to perform a standard machine-learning classification task. On this task the thermodynamic computer is as capable as a simple multilayer perceptron. We show that different inference protocols allow the computer to operate within 40\% of the thermodynamic limit of efficiency without loss of accuracy, or to perform inference increasingly rapidly at fixed accuracy and thermodynamic efficiency. These results indicate that a thermodynamic computer designed for a particular task retains considerable freedom in its thermodynamic operation.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗
arXiv2026

Evolutionary Soups: Evolving Mixture-of-Experts for Multi-Objective LLM Alignment

Large language models are increasingly required to generate responses that satisfy multiple competing objectives. Since optimal trade-offs depend on both user preferences and input prompts, controllable multi-objective generation must dynamically adapt models at inference time without retraining. To address this, we propose Evolutionary Soups, a mixture-of-experts framework for fine-grained generation control, with gating networks trained via an evolutionary algorithm. The per-layer gating networks dynamically produce expert-merging coefficients from hidden-state representations, while the evolutionary algorithm incorporates greedy hypervolume contribution for effective evolution of these gating networks, achieving consistent improvements on large and noisy training datasets and broader coverage of the non-convex Pareto front. Experiments across three tasks demonstrate the effectiveness of Evolutionary Soups over baselines: it achieves the best hypervolume, linear utility, and Tchebyshev utility (~20% improvement) among controllable methods on all tasks.

cs.CL↗
arXiv2026

Large Language Models and Evolutionary Computation: A Critical Review of Bidirectional Interaction, Automated Algorithm Design, and Co-Adaptive Systems

Large Language Models (LLMs) and Evolutionary Computation (EC) are increasingly being combined to support automated optimization, algorithm design, and adaptive decision-making. This survey reviews the bidirectional interaction between these two paradigms and examines how their complementary strengths can be leveraged in hybrid intelligent systems. First, we analyze how EC can enhance LLM-based systems through prompt optimization, hyperparameter tuning, and architecture search. Second, we review how LLMs can im- prove EC by supporting metaheuristic design, surrogate reasoning, adaptive operator control, and heuristic generation. We further discuss emerging co-adaptive frameworks in which LLMs and EC interact through iterative feedback loops. Beyond summarizing recent developments, the survey provides a structured perspec- tive on interaction mechanisms, application patterns, and methodological challenges, including computational cost, reproducibility, interpretability, benchmarking, and generalization. The paper concludes by outlining open research questions and future directions for developing more robust, transparent, and scalable LLM-EC systems.

cs.NE↗
arXiv2026

Efficient Memristive Spiking Neural Networks Architecture with Supervised In-Situ STDP Method

Memristor-based Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) with temporal spike encoding enable ultra-low-energy computation, making them ideal for battery-powered intelligent devices. This paper presents a circuit-level memristive spiking neural network (SNN) architecture trained using a proposed novel supervised in-situ learning algorithm inspired by spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP). The proposed architecture efficiently implements lateral inhibition and the refractory period, eliminating the need for external microcontrollers or ancillary control hardware. All synapses of the winning neurons are updated in parallel, enhancing training efficiency. The modular design ensures scalability with respect to input data dimensions and output class count. The SNN is evaluated in LTspice for pattern recognition (using 5x3 binary images) and classification tasks using the Iris and Breast Cancer Wisconsin (BCW) datasets. During testing, the system achieved perfect pattern recognition and high classification accuracies of 99.11\% (Iris) and 97.9\% (BCW). Additionally, it has demonstrated robustness, maintaining an average recognition rate of 93.4\% under 20\% input noise. The impact of stuck-at-conductance faults and memristor device variations was also analyzed.

cs.ET↗
arXiv2026

Multiclass Linear Perceptrons with Multiplicative Margins

This paper introduces a family of multiclass linear Perceptron classifiers with a multiplicative margin mechanism (MMPerc), as an alternative to standard margin-free and additive margin Perceptrons. The multiplicative formulation enforces classification confidence by requiring the true class score to exceed that of competing classes by a specified fraction of itself, rather than by a fixed additive threshold. This avoids dependence on score magnitudes arising from varied norms of data and class weight vectors. We propose several architectural and algorithmic variants of MMPerc, derive associated loss functions and mistake bounds for both linearly separable and non-separable data, and analyze key design considerations, including bias, margin threshold selection, and training modes. Extensive experiments on synthetic and real datasets show that MMPerc classifiers typically outperform the standard Perceptron, as well as classic baselines such as Support Vector Machines and Ridge classifiers. Owing to their simplicity, minimalistic design, and computational efficiency, MMPerc classifiers are promising candidates for conventional machine learning tasks, linear evaluation of Deep Neural Networks, integration with Hyperdimensional Computing / Vector Symbolic Architecture representations, and deployment in resource-constrained applications.

cs.LG↗
arXiv2026

Asymptotical Analysis of the $(1+(λ,λ))$ GA Escape Time from Local Optima on Jump Functions

The paper develops the approach to the runtime analysis of evolutionary algorithms on the basis of limit theorems from probability theory. We consider the family of Jump$_k$ benchmark functions, defined on the search space of binary strings of length $n$, parametrized by the integer $k$, which have a plateau of multiple local optima at the Hamming distance $k$ from a unique global optimum. In this work, we consider the genetic algorithm $(1+(λ,λ)) GA$ from (Doerr, Doerr and Ebel, 2015) with tunable parameters of the mutation rate $p$, crossover bias $c$, and two intermediate population sizes $λ_M$ and $λ_C$. We study the time it escapes from the plateau of local optima and reaches the global optimum in the case of Jump$_k$ fitness function and tighten the upper bounds on the expected escape time, known from the work of Antipov, Doerr and Karavaev (2022). The obtained bounds also apply to a wider range of algorithmic parameters. The main result of this work applies to the case when $k\to \infty$ as $n \to \infty.$ The case of finite $k$ is investigated quite simply and considered tangentially.

cs.NE↗
arXiv2026

Life as Plasmas: Autonomy and Interactivism in-materio

When is a material system a candidate for life at all? We argue that this question is prior to behavior, functional architecture, or computational capacity, and that at root it is one of physical admissibility. We develop a framework in which minimal autonomy, taken in the interactivist sense of normativity grounded in self-maintaining far-from-equilibrium organization, corresponds to a distinct non-equilibrium phase of matter, and we take complex plasmas, a physical and non-biological system, as its in-materio exemplar. We formalize a diagnostic phase-space whose criteria (sustained free-energy throughput, organizational closure, active information maintenance, and regulated noise sensitivity) constitute necessary conditions for life-attribution. We instantiate the diagnostics across contrasting systems and fix the boundaries of the phase space via Bénard convection as a driven baseline lacking closure, and a digital self-replicating soup that carries measured informational heredity while its physical closure remains a structural zero. We demonstrate that plasmas satisfy every admissibility condition for minimal physical autonomy while carrying none of the informational heredity that open-ended evolution requires, sharpening the distinction between physical admissibility and biological sufficiency, and bounding downstream questions of machine sentience.

cs.NE↗
arXiv2026

Perforated Backpropagation: A Neuroscience Inspired Extension to Artificial Neural Networks

The neurons of artificial neural networks were originally invented when much less was known about biological neurons than is known today. Our work explores a modification to the core neuron unit to make it more parallel to a biological neuron. The modification is made with the knowledge that biological dendrites are not simply passive activation funnels, but also compute complex non-linear functions as they transmit activation to the cell body. The paper explores a novel system of ``perforated'' backpropagation empowering the artificial neurons of deep neural networks to achieve better performance coding for the same features they coded for in the original architecture. After an initial network training phase, additional ``dendrite'' nodes are added to the network and separately trained with a different objective: to correlate their output with the remaining error of the original neurons. The trained dendrites are then frozen, and the original neurons are further trained, now taking into account the additional error signals provided by the dendrites. The cycle of training the original neurons and then adding and training dendrites can be repeated several times until satisfactory performance is achieved. Our algorithm was successfully added to modern state-of-the-art PyTorch networks across multiple domains, improving upon original accuracies and allowing for significant model compression without a loss in accuracy.

cs.NE↗
arXiv2026

PruneShift: A Framework for Evaluating Decision Reliability in Structured Pruning

Structured pruning uses surrogate objectives because direct task evaluation over every feasible mask is too expensive. Most evaluations report average surrogate error or rank correlation on broadly sampled masks. These summaries do not directly test the mask chosen by the surrogate. We introduce PruneShift, an evaluation framework that separates broad predictive fidelity, fidelity near selector outputs, and the quality of the selected pruning decision. We first prove that Spearman and Kendall agreement can approach one while normalized selection regret remains maximal. We then derive sufficient conditions based on uniform error, selector suboptimality, decision margin, density ratio, and comparison mass. The analysis also yields a finite pool certificate with an explicit excess cost bound. Four studies test different links in this argument. External TextbookQA confirmation is heterogeneous: 7 of 20 simultaneous intervals favor the surrogate-selected mask, 6 favor its fixed comparator, and 7 cross zero. On a fixed Natural Questions pool, strict improvement holds in one of four settings. A controlled QQP experiment supports the proposed coverage mechanism in all 16 prespecified endpoints, although the sufficient bounds are conservative. Finally, a restricted OSSCAR reconstruction study on OPT-125M shows better local than broad fidelity in 68 of 75 primary endpoints. Independent fixed-mask confirmation is inconclusive in 24 of 25 endpoints and favors the comparator in one. These results show why predictive fit, decision reliability, and pruning method quality require separate evidence.

cs.LG↗
arXiv2026

DelRec: learning delays in recurrent spiking neural networks

Biological neurons transmit information with stereotyped electrical impulses called ``spikes'', sensitive to coincident timings. Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs), introduced in the nineties, have gained popularity in AI for their energy efficiency and competitive performance with deep learning. Among them, Recurrent SNNs (RSNNs) are particularly appealing for their ability to learn long-term dependencies and exhibit rich dynamics. In SNNs, each connection can have a weight and a transmission delay, both plastic in the brain. While theory has long suggested that trainable delays enhance a network's expressivity, practical learning methods emerged only recently and remain mostly limited to feedforward delays. Here, we introduce DelRec, the first method to jointly optimize recurrent delays with synaptic weights in RSNNs via surrogate gradient learning, compatible with any spiking neuron model. DelRec works in discrete time, leveraging differentiable interpolation to handle non-integer delays with well-defined gradients at training time. Using simple neurons, DelRec outperforms all baselines on a chaotic time-series prediction task, and achieves competitive performance on four challenging temporal datasets. Analysis of trained networks show that recurrent delay optimization builds structured, depth-dependent spatio-temporal receptive fields that the network actively exploits, with delay-weight joint optimization reshaping temporal selectivity. Beyond accuracy, we show that recurrent delay learning can reduce the memory footprint and energy consumption of a network, and shapes its robustness to temporal perturbations of its inputs. This work establishes recurrent delay optimization as a promising framework for both biological circuit modeling and neuromorphic computing.

cs.NE↗
arXiv2026

"More Is Different'' in Neural Circuits: Algebraic Emergence of Effective Theories in Canonical Recurrent Motifs of Biological Neuronal Networks

Canonical neural circuit motifs are usually described functionally: divisive normalization rescales population activity by a pooled signal, and winner-take-all competition selects one pattern through recurrent excitation and shared inhibition. We represent them, and their compositions, algebraically as finite transformation systems and analyze the transition monoids generated by their input-conditioned updates, distinguishing structure already present in a generator from structure that appears only through composition, and, on a joint state space, structure inherited from one factor from structure that lives on a joint configuration. Individually aperiodic updates can generate non-aperiodic monoids. In the WTA, every frozen-drive generator collapses to fixed points, yet short input sequences create local cycles of winner-dependent inhibitory gating: globally dissipative dynamics with a reversible action. The strongest result arises in WTA-to-DN composition. The composed monoid then contains a genuinely composite local cycle in which normalization state and the winner's gating state change together, although every primitive generator is aperiodic. Holonomy analysis certifies this as a group component of the Krohn-Rhodes cascade rather than an incidental cycle, and finds most group-carrying image sets on joint configurations, whereas the uncoupled product has none. An exhaustive interface sweep shows that the composite cycle is a property of the coupling rather than of a chosen map. If motifs are building blocks of neural computation, composing them is a form of programming: one chooses primitives and interfaces so that the generated algebra has the intended repertoire. The transition monoid is that repertoire - what a primitive presents to any later construction. Recurrent circuits are compositional transformation systems; their algebra constrains what they can be programmed to compute.

q-bio.NC↗
arXiv2026

A Systematic Approach to Mechanism Design with Stochastic Dynamic Stability

We consider a resource allocation problem with strategic agents that have private stochastic satisfaction functions and local constraints. To achieve a global optimal solution, we propose an incentive mechanism that induces a game among the agents. For the payment function of the mechanism, we construct a family of quadratic functions using the linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach that implements the social welfare maximizing outcome on the unique Nash equilibrium (NE) of the induced game while ensuring budget balance and individual rationality. Moreover, we propose a decentralized variable sample-size proximal best-response (VS-PBR) algorithm with Krasnoselskij iteration where only aggregate information is available to the agents. The algorithm is dynamically stable, as it is proven to converge in the mean-square sense to the NE of the game. The efficiency of the mechanism is then investigated on the Sioux Falls City transportation network, where electric vehicle (EV) users jointly select their destination and route.

eess.SY↗
arXiv2026

A Sharp Unitarily Invariant Norm Bound for the Off-Diagonal Block Perturbation of a Hermitian Matrix

Let $$ A=\begin{bmatrix} H_1 & E^* \\ E & H_2 \end{bmatrix} \quad\text{and}\quad \widetilde A=\begin{bmatrix} H_1 & 0 \\ 0 & H_2 \end{bmatrix} $$ be two partitioned Hermitian matrices, where $\widetilde A$ is obtained from $A$ by simply dropping the off-diagonal blocks, and let $η$ be the gap between the spectra ${\rm eig}(H_1)$ of $H_1$ and ${\rm eig}(H_2)$ of $H_2$. Define, for $δ\ge 0$ and $ε\ge 0$, $$ ϕ(δ,ε)= \begin{cases} 2ε/(δ+\sqrt{δ^2+4ε^2}), &\quad\mbox{if $(δ,ε)\ne (0,0)$}, 1, &\quad\mbox{if $(δ,ε) = (0,0)$}, \end{cases} $$ and let $V=A-\widetilde A$ and $ε_2=\|E\|_2=\|V\|_2$, the matrix spectral norm. Li and Li [{\em Linear Algebra Appl.}, 395:183--190, 2005] established a sharp spectral-norm bound on the changes in the eigenvalues of $A$: $$ \big\|{\rm diag}\big(\pmbλ(A)-\pmbλ(\widetilde A)\big)\big\|_2 \le ϕ(η,ε_2)\,\|E\|_2, $$ where $\pmbλ(A)$ is the vector whose components are the eigenvalues of $A$ in descending order and similarly for $\pmbλ(\widetilde A)$. The goal of this paper is to resolve the question: how far an extension of this result in the form $$ \big\|{\rm diag}\big(\pmbλ(A)-\pmbλ(\widetilde A)\big)\big\|_{\rm UI} \le ϕ(η,ε_2)\,\|A-\widetilde A\|_{\rm UI} $$ remains valid for some or all unitarily invariant norms $\|\cdot\|_{\rm UI}$? Two results are obtained: (a) the extension holds for any $Q$-norm, a subclass of unitarily invariant norms that encompasses the Schatten $p$-norm for $2\le p\le\infty$ (particularly, the Frobenius norm and the spectral norm included), and (b) the extension holds for any unitarily invariant norm if ${\rm rank}(E)\le 1$. It is demonstrated that the equality is attained on the $2\times 2$ matrix $A$.

math.NA↗
arXiv2026

Fully Distributed GNE Algorithms for Multi-Robot Placement without Consensus on Multipliers

Recent machine learning research has increasingly focused on equilibrium analysis in non-cooperative games rather than solely on optimal solutions. Many such problems involve shared constraints and can be formulated as Generalized Nash Equilibrium Problems (GNEPs). For strongly monotone games, existing methods compute consensus-based variational GNEs (v-GNEs) by exchanging Lagrange multipliers. We propose a fully distributed continuous-time algorithm for shared linear equality constraints that converges without multiplier exchange and reaches any GNE, reducing communication overhead and improving privacy. Discrete-time schemes are also provided, and the method is validated on a multi-robot placement task.

cs.LG↗
arXiv2026

VIBE: Video Instruction-aligned Background music gEneration

Current video-to-music (V2M) models lack semantic control and fail to penalize instruction violations, largely due to their reliance on reconstruction objectives and the representational bottleneck of static cross-modal conditioning in Diffusion Autoregressive (DAR) architectures. To resolve this, we introduce VIBE, a novel text-and-video-to-music (T+V2M) generation model that leverages: (1) Conditioning Connection, a depth-wise cross-layer conditioning mechanism that dynamically bridges the planning and diffusion refinement heads and (2) a comprehensive reward modeling taxonomy, optimizing for both hard, verifiable constraints (e.g., tempo, key) and soft, subjective qualities (e.g., musicality, multimodal alignment) with a structured 5-stage training curriculum. Upon evaluation using audio-visual alignment, instruction following, and audio quality metrics, along with a subjective human evaluation study, we observe that VIBE demonstrates enhanced controllability and instruction adherence while performing comparably to most evaluated baselines on generation fidelity and multimodal alignment.

cs.SD↗
arXiv2026

Aligning Agentic World Models via Knowledgeable Experience Learning

Current Large Language Models (LLMs) exhibit a critical modal disconnect: they possess vast semantic knowledge but lack the procedural grounding to respect the immutable laws of the physical world. Consequently, while these agents implicitly function as world models, their simulations often suffer from physical hallucinations-generating plans that are logically sound but physically unexecutable. Existing alignment strategies predominantly rely on resource-intensive training or fine-tuning, which attempt to compress dynamic environmental rules into static model parameters. However, such parametric encapsulation is inherently rigid, struggling to adapt to the open-ended variability of physical dynamics without continuous, costly retraining. To bridge this gap, we introduce WorldMind, a framework that autonomously constructs a symbolic World Knowledge Repository by synthesizing environmental feedback. Specifically, it unifies Process Experience to enforce physical feasibility via prediction errors and Goal Experience to guide task optimality through successful trajectories. Experiments on EB-ALFRED and EB-Habitat demonstrate that WorldMind achieves superior performance compared to baselines with remarkable cross-model and cross-environment transferability.

cs.CL↗