Robust Reasoning as a Symmetry-Protected Topological Phase

arXiv:2601.05240v1
Originality Highly original
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This addresses the fundamental problem of logical reliability in AI systems for applications requiring robust reasoning, proposing a new universality class rather than an incremental improvement.

The paper tackles the problem of logical inconsistencies (hallucinations) in large language models by proposing that robust reasoning corresponds to a Symmetry-Protected Topological phase, where logical operations are isomorphic to non-Abelian anyon braiding. The authors demonstrate a sharp topological phase transition where their Holonomic Network maintains perfect fidelity extrapolating 100× beyond training on a symbolic manipulation task, while Transformers lose logical coherence.

Large language models suffer from "hallucinations"-logical inconsistencies induced by semantic noise. We propose that current architectures operate in a "Metric Phase," where causal order is vulnerable to spontaneous symmetry breaking. Here, we identify robust inference as an effective Symmetry-Protected Topological phase, where logical operations are formally isomorphic to non-Abelian anyon braiding, replacing fragile geometric interpolation with robust topological invariants. Empirically, we demonstrate a sharp topological phase transition: while Transformers and RNNs exhibit gapless decay, our Holonomic Network reveals a macroscopic "mass gap," maintaining invariant fidelity below a critical noise threshold. Furthermore, in a variable-binding task on $S_{10}$ ($3.6 \times 10^6$ states) representing symbolic manipulation, we demonstrate holonomic generalization: the topological model maintains perfect fidelity extrapolating $100\times$ beyond training ($L=50 \to 5000$), consistent with a theoretically indefinite causal horizon, whereas Transformers lose logical coherence. Ablation studies indicate this protection emerges strictly from non-Abelian gauge symmetry. This provides strong evidence for a new universality class for logical reasoning, linking causal stability to the topology of the semantic manifold.

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