Parameter-Level Attribution of Symmetry in Trained Networks Though Parameter-Wise Functional Sensitivity
Alan Muriithi, Vedanta Thapar, Torben Berndt
Abstract
When a network has learned a function with a known symmetry, can that symmetry be moved through the parametrisation---is there a motion in parameter space realising the group action in function space? We formulate this as a lifting problem for the realisation map $Φ:θ\mapsto f_θ$, and show that a smooth parameter-space action exists only if the tangent space to the function's symmetry orbit lies within the image of $\mathrm dΦ_θ$, whose columns are the \emph{functional sensitivities} of individual parameters. This condition is also sufficient for pointwise first-order lifting. Relaxing it in least squares yields two local parameter directions: one following the symmetry orbit, one descending towards the equivariant subspace, with residuals measuring what the parametrisation cannot reach. On a rotationally invariant classifier we find these directions induce their predicted function-space motion, but only locally: recomputed directions track the orbit and reduce the equivariance defect, while directions held fixed depart from both after training. The same holds for Hamiltonian neural networks trained on a rotationally symmetric potential, even though the architecture does not explicitly enforce the symmetry.
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Classified with taxonomy v2 on Wed, 2 Sept 2026.