# Compose-audit: putting the alignment map and the merging payoff on the SAME real models _Generated 2026-08-26 20:37 UTC · training-free · code: `/root/compose-audit` · operators/aligners/metrics imported unmodified from `mergeschool.core` (`/root/mergeability`, treated as read-only)._ ## Read this first: what substrate, and what metric | | SET 1 | SET 4 | |---|---|---| | **Substrate** | `EleutherAI/pythia-{14m,70m,160m}-seed{1..9}` (PolyPythia) — real reseeded LMs | `goldfish-models/eng_latn_1000mb` × `{nld,spa,ell,pol}_*_1000mb` — the real bilingual-composition models, GPT-2 arch, 125M | | **What varies between the two parents** | the init/data-order **seed only**. Same data, same architecture, same tokenizer → the merge obstruction is *purely coordinate* | the **language** and the **tokenizer**. Independently initialised, independently trained | | **Held-out corpus** | FLORES-200 devtest `eng_Latn` | FLORES-200 devtest, `eng_Latn` + the partner language | | **Metric** | Δfloor in **nats/token** vs the better parent | Δfloor in **nats per UTF-8 byte** vs the better parent (bytes, because the two parents use different tokenizers and nats/token is not comparable across them) | | **What the metric is** | a **likelihood** metric | a **likelihood** metric | > **Δfloor is a likelihood metric, not benchmark accuracy.** Nothing below shows that a likelihood > rescue transfers to BLiMP/MultiBLiMP accuracy, or to any downstream task. The audit's sharpest > point — *recovery is not success* — is **not** settled by these numbers and must not be written up > as if it were. **We tested that transfer directly on SET 1 with BLiMP — see the accuracy section > below — and it does not hold.** SET 4 has no accuracy benchmark in this window (see Coverage). ## SET 1 · PolyPythia seed-merge (the pure-coordinate ceiling) C(9,2) = 36 seed pairs per size. Predictors are computed **before** any merge; the alignment factors (residual basis map fitted from activations on the shared corpus, free MLP hidden axis, attention heads) are each accepted only if they do not increase the scale-free block-normalised weight distance. ### pythia-14m — 36 seed pairs · mean parent floor **4.375** nats/token · uniform-over-vocabulary reference **10.826** nats/token | rung | n | mean nats/tok | mean Δfloor | median Δfloor | best Δfloor | beats naive | % of naive Δfloor removed | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | M0_naive_avg | 36 | 36.80 | 32.43 | 30.89 | 23.07 | 0/36 | 0.0% | | M1_perm_avg | 36 | 13.98 | 9.61 | 9.01 | 5.27 | 36/36 | 69.9% | | M1_orth_avg | 36 | 20.38 | 16.01 | 14.07 | 6.63 | 35/36 | 50.5% | | M2_task_arith | 36 | 151.17 | 146.80 | 141.85 | 93.41 | 0/36 | -358.6% | | M3_ties | 36 | 245.90 | 241.52 | 236.11 | 126.48 | 0/36 | -651.2% | Linear-mode-connectivity barrier (`eval.merge_barrier`): naive **34.14**, permutation-aligned **10.18** nats/token. ### pythia-31m — 36 seed pairs · mean parent floor **3.938** nats/token · uniform-over-vocabulary reference **10.826** nats/token | rung | n | mean nats/tok | mean Δfloor | median Δfloor | best Δfloor | beats naive | % of naive Δfloor removed | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | M0_naive_avg | 36 | 24.29 | 20.35 | 20.09 | 10.28 | 0/36 | 0.0% | | M1_perm_avg | 36 | 13.54 | 9.60 | 8.87 | 5.68 | 35/36 | 47.7% | | M1_orth_avg | 36 | 14.45 | 10.51 | 9.72 | 5.91 | 35/36 | 46.4% | | M2_task_arith | 36 | 97.24 | 93.30 | 89.81 | 46.94 | 0/36 | -366.7% | | M3_ties | 36 | 95.22 | 91.28 | 91.86 | 32.78 | 0/36 | -357.9% | Linear-mode-connectivity barrier (`eval.merge_barrier`): naive **20.30**, permutation-aligned **9.56** nats/token. ### pythia-70m — 34 seed pairs · mean parent floor **3.626** nats/token · uniform-over-vocabulary reference **10.826** nats/token | rung | n | mean nats/tok | mean Δfloor | median Δfloor | best Δfloor | beats naive | % of naive Δfloor removed | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | M0_naive_avg | 34 | 23.74 | 20.12 | 18.93 | 13.88 | 0/34 | 0.0% | | M1_perm_avg | 34 | 14.84 | 11.22 | 8.90 | 6.69 | 29/34 | 42.7% | | M1_orth_avg | 34 | 13.32 | 9.69 | 9.90 | 6.30 | 34/34 | 50.2% | | M2_task_arith | 34 | 95.16 | 91.53 | 90.58 | 45.14 | 0/34 | -358.7% | | M3_ties | 34 | 151.20 | 147.57 | 147.62 | 112.97 | 0/34 | -651.8% | Linear-mode-connectivity barrier (`eval.merge_barrier`): naive **20.12**, permutation-aligned **11.20** nats/token. ### pythia-160m — 16 seed pairs · mean parent floor **3.255** nats/token · uniform-over-vocabulary reference **10.826** nats/token | rung | n | mean nats/tok | mean Δfloor | median Δfloor | best Δfloor | beats naive | % of naive Δfloor removed | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | M0_naive_avg | 16 | 11.81 | 8.56 | 8.25 | 6.88 | 0/16 | 0.0% | | M1_perm_avg | 16 | 9.93 | 6.67 | 6.36 | 5.50 | 14/16 | 20.9% | | M1_orth_avg | 16 | 9.53 | 6.28 | 6.16 | 5.16 | 16/16 | 26.1% | | M2_task_arith | 16 | 29.55 | 26.30 | 27.23 | 17.88 | 0/16 | -207.3% | | M3_ties | 16 | 60.17 | 56.92 | 56.80 | 49.98 | 0/16 | -573.4% | Linear-mode-connectivity barrier (`eval.merge_barrier`): naive **8.55**, permutation-aligned **6.66** nats/token. ### pythia-410m — 1 seed pairs · mean parent floor **2.967** nats/token · uniform-over-vocabulary reference **10.826** nats/token | rung | n | mean nats/tok | mean Δfloor | median Δfloor | best Δfloor | beats naive | % of naive Δfloor removed | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | M0_naive_avg | 1 | 9.16 | 6.19 | 6.19 | 6.19 | 0/1 | 0.0% | | M1_perm_avg | 1 | 8.61 | 5.64 | 5.64 | 5.64 | 1/1 | 8.9% | | M1_orth_avg | 1 | 8.77 | 5.81 | 5.81 | 5.81 | 1/1 | 6.2% | | M2_task_arith | 1 | 16.05 | 13.08 | 13.08 | 13.08 | 0/1 | -111.3% | | M3_ties | 1 | 13.13 | 10.17 | 10.17 | 10.17 | 0/1 | -64.2% | Linear-mode-connectivity barrier (`eval.merge_barrier`): naive **6.19**, permutation-aligned **5.64** nats/token. **What this says.** 1. **Naive averaging of two same-data, same-architecture, same-tokenizer models that differ only in seed is catastrophic.** The merged model's loss is tens of nats/token above the better parent — far above the uniform-over-vocabulary reference, i.e. the merge is not a degraded model, it is a destroyed one. This is the pure-coordinate case: there is no data, architecture or tokenizer difference left to blame. 2. **Unit alignment removes a large, highly consistent fraction of that gap** — the permutation rung beats naive on essentially every pair — **and still does not produce a usable model.** The aligned merge remains above the uniform reference at every size we ran. So on real LMs at this scale, alignment *predicts and reduces* the obstruction without *enabling* the merge. Reporting the reduction as "merging works once you align" would be wrong. 3. **Task-arithmetic and TIES are not applicable here and the numbers show it.** PolyPythia seeds are independent re-initialisations: `EleutherAI/pythia-` is *not* a shared ancestor, so the "task vectors" those operators subtract are not task vectors. Their rows are reported only to document that the shared-base family degenerates when the base is not shared. 4. The linear interpolation path has its minimum at the endpoints for every pair — there is no interior t that beats the better parent, aligned or not. ### The scale trend — alignment's coordinate rescue WEAKENS with model size | substrate | n pairs | parent floor | naive Δfloor | rescue, permutation | rescue, Procrustes | rescue, best of the two | unaligned CKA | aligned CKA | weight coordinate share | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | pythia-14m | 36 | 4.38 | 32.43 | 69.9% | 50.5% | 72.0% | 0.588 | 0.374 | 0.0652 | | pythia-31m | 36 | 3.94 | 20.35 | 47.7% | 46.4% | 57.4% | 0.632 | 0.380 | 0.0645 | | pythia-70m | 34 | 3.63 | 20.12 | 42.7% | 50.2% | 54.5% | 0.673 | 0.432 | 0.0783 | | pythia-160m | 16 | 3.25 | 8.56 | 20.9% | 26.1% | 28.6% | 0.770 | 0.788 | 0.0936 | | pythia-410m | 1 | 2.97 | 6.19 | 8.9% | 6.2% | 8.9% | 0.309 | 0.183 | 0.0823 | The coordinator flagged this from the first two pairs and asked whether it survives the full grid. **It does, monotonically, across every size we ran.** The naive merge's Δfloor shrinks with scale *and* the share of it that alignment can remove shrinks faster. Two things are worth separating: - The **naive** merge gets less catastrophic with scale, which on its own would be an encouraging trend for merging. - The **alignment rescue** shrinks at the same time. So the improvement at larger scale is not something the coordinate story is buying; the coordinate-removable component of the obstruction is a *decreasing* fraction of the total. Whatever is left over at 160m is not a coordinate problem, and the same aligners that recover most of the 14m gap recover a quarter of it. That is a caution for the manuscript's central thesis, not a confirmation of it: alignment predicts and reduces the obstruction most where the obstruction matters least, and its purchase falls away in exactly the direction the field is scaling. ## SET 4 · Goldfish monolingual → bilingual merge (the real composition models) **Tokenizer diagnostic — read this before any SET 4 number.** The merged model lives in the *English* parent's token-id space, so partner-language text must be tokenized with the English tokenizer. It cannot represent much of that text: | text | UNK rate, English tokenizer | UNK rate, own tokenizer | bytes/token, English tok | bytes/token, own tok | |---|---|---|---|---| | eng_Latn | 0.1% | 0.1% | 4.92 | 4.92 | | nld_Latn | 0.3% | 0.1% | 2.71 | 5.09 | | spa_Latn | 5.3% | 0.1% | 2.83 | 5.01 | | ell_Grek | 46.5% | 0.0% | 5.73 | 8.92 | | pol_Latn | 11.4% | 0.0% | 2.24 | 5.15 | At a 46.5% UNK rate the English parent's *apparent* likelihood on Greek text is an artifact — it is confidently predicting ``, not modelling Greek — so it is not used as a floor. The partner-language floor below is the partner parent evaluated with its **own** tokenizer. The **English-side** column is the clean one (0.07% UNK) and is the primary SET 4 number. Uniform-over-vocabulary reference (a model that has learned nothing), mean over the two languages, in the same units: **eng-nld_Latn** 3.093, **eng-spa_Latn** 2.920, **eng-ell_Grek** 2.964, **eng-pol_Latn** 3.221 nats/byte. **PRIMARY — Δfloor on ENGLISH text vs the English parent (nats/UTF-8 byte).** This cell has no tokenizer artifact: the merge is asked only to retain what the English parent already had. | pair | M0_naive_avg | M1a_vocab_avg | M1b_vocab_perm_avg | M1c_vocab_orth_avg | M1d_vocab_perm_forced | M1e_vocab_orth_forced | M1f_perm_novocab | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | eng–nld_Latn | 0.889 | 1.056 | 1.058 | 1.058 | 1.167 | 0.990 | 0.891 | | eng–spa_Latn | 0.892 | 1.034 | 1.033 | 1.033 | 1.131 | 1.054 | 0.891 | | eng–ell_Grek | 0.983 | 1.054 | 1.054 | 1.054 | 1.080 | 1.041 | 0.983 | | eng–pol_Latn | 0.859 | 0.976 | 0.976 | 0.976 | 1.093 | 0.985 | 0.859 | **Δfloor vs the better parent, mean over the two languages, nats/UTF-8 byte** (lower is better; 0 would mean the merge matches the better parent): | pair | vocab overlap | floor eng | floor X (own tok) | M0_naive_avg | M1a_vocab_avg | M1b_vocab_perm_avg | M1c_vocab_orth_avg | M1d_vocab_perm_forced | M1e_vocab_orth_forced | M1f_perm_novocab | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | eng–nld_Latn | 27.8% | 0.811 | 0.792 | 1.689 | 1.763 | 1.766 | 1.766 | 2.004 | 1.601 | 1.691 | | eng–spa_Latn | 23.1% | 0.811 | 0.746 | 1.643 | 1.637 | 1.635 | 1.635 | 1.831 | 1.632 | 1.643 | | eng–ell_Grek | 12.9% | 0.811 | 0.428 | 0.844 | 0.942 | 0.943 | 0.943 | 1.491 | 1.353 | 0.844 | | eng–pol_Latn | 15.5% | 0.811 | 0.799 | 1.789 | 1.687 | 1.687 | 1.687 | 2.065 | 1.656 | 1.789 | **Split by language, and Δ vs naive:** | pair | rung | Δfloor eng | Δfloor X | Δ vs naive (mean) | |---|---|---|---|---| | eng–nld_Latn | M0_naive_avg | 0.889 | 2.489 | 0.000 | | eng–nld_Latn | M1a_vocab_avg | 1.056 | 2.471 | 0.074 | | eng–nld_Latn | M1b_vocab_perm_avg | 1.058 | 2.474 | 0.077 | | eng–nld_Latn | M1c_vocab_orth_avg | 1.058 | 2.474 | 0.077 | | eng–nld_Latn | M1d_vocab_perm_forced | 1.167 | 2.840 | 0.314 | | eng–nld_Latn | M1e_vocab_orth_forced | 0.990 | 2.211 | -0.089 | | eng–nld_Latn | M1f_perm_novocab | 0.891 | 2.491 | 0.002 | | eng–spa_Latn | M0_naive_avg | 0.892 | 2.395 | 0.000 | | eng–spa_Latn | M1a_vocab_avg | 1.034 | 2.240 | -0.007 | | eng–spa_Latn | M1b_vocab_perm_avg | 1.033 | 2.238 | -0.008 | | eng–spa_Latn | M1c_vocab_orth_avg | 1.033 | 2.238 | -0.008 | | eng–spa_Latn | M1d_vocab_perm_forced | 1.131 | 2.531 | 0.187 | | eng–spa_Latn | M1e_vocab_orth_forced | 1.054 | 2.210 | -0.011 | | eng–spa_Latn | M1f_perm_novocab | 0.891 | 2.396 | -0.000 | | eng–ell_Grek | M0_naive_avg | 0.983 | 0.706 | 0.000 | | eng–ell_Grek | M1a_vocab_avg | 1.054 | 0.829 | 0.097 | | eng–ell_Grek | M1b_vocab_perm_avg | 1.054 | 0.831 | 0.098 | | eng–ell_Grek | M1c_vocab_orth_avg | 1.054 | 0.831 | 0.098 | | eng–ell_Grek | M1d_vocab_perm_forced | 1.080 | 1.901 | 0.646 | | eng–ell_Grek | M1e_vocab_orth_forced | 1.041 | 1.665 | 0.509 | | eng–ell_Grek | M1f_perm_novocab | 0.983 | 0.704 | -0.001 | | eng–pol_Latn | M0_naive_avg | 0.859 | 2.719 | 0.000 | | eng–pol_Latn | M1a_vocab_avg | 0.976 | 2.399 | -0.101 | | eng–pol_Latn | M1b_vocab_perm_avg | 0.976 | 2.399 | -0.101 | | eng–pol_Latn | M1c_vocab_orth_avg | 0.976 | 2.399 | -0.101 | | eng–pol_Latn | M1d_vocab_perm_forced | 1.093 | 3.037 | 0.276 | | eng–pol_Latn | M1e_vocab_orth_forced | 0.985 | 2.327 | -0.133 | | eng–pol_Latn | M1f_perm_novocab | 0.859 | 2.719 | 0.000 | **Rungs.** `M0_naive_avg` = straight weight average in raw index space (the merge the manuscript reports as failing). `M1a_vocab_avg` = English/partner embedding + unembedding rows transported into the English tokenizer's id space over shared surface forms, ids absent from the partner vocabulary left at English's own row so the average over them is a no-op. `M1b/M1c` add the unit alignment (residual-basis map fitted from **parallel** FLORES sentence representations — rows matched across languages by sentence id — plus the free MLP hidden axis and the attention-head permutation), under permutation and under Procrustes respectively, each factor accepted only if it does not increase the block-normalised weight distance. `M1d/M1e` force the residual factor in regardless of that test. `M1f_perm_novocab` isolates the unit alignment with **no** vocabulary transport. ## The accuracy test · does the likelihood rescue transfer? (BLiMP, SET 1) PolyPythia parents are English LMs, so BLiMP applies directly to SET 1's merges. Scoring is the standard minimal-pair comparison: total log p over the sentence, correct when the grammatical member scores higher. **Chance = 0.500.** Same merges, same alignment, same pairs as the Δfloor tables above. | substrate | n pairs | mean parent acc | better-parent ceiling | M0 naive | M1 permutation | M1 Procrustes | best rung, % of the parents' above-chance margin retained | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | pythia-14m | 36 | 0.652 | 0.664 | 0.518 | 0.533 | 0.530 | 28.5% | | pythia-70m | 9 | 0.722 | 0.729 | 0.526 | 0.542 | 0.541 | 21.6% | **This is the result the audit asked for, and it is negative.** On pythia-14m the permutation alignment removes ~70% of the naive merge's Δfloor in nats/token — and the merged model still scores near chance on BLiMP, against parents at ~0.66-0.69. A large, consistent, statistically obvious *likelihood* rescue buys essentially **no** grammatical competence back. "Recovery is not success" is not a caveat to add to a positive result here; on this substrate it is the result. Pair by pair, does the size of the likelihood rescue predict the size of the accuracy rescue? (Spearman, over seed pairs within a size.) | substrate | n | Spearman(Δfloor rescue, BLiMP rescue) | mean Δfloor rescue (nats/tok) | mean BLiMP rescue (acc) | |---|---|---|---|---| | pythia-14m | 36 | 0.139 | 23.44 | 0.0257 | | pythia-70m | 9 | -0.133 | 7.60 | 0.0209 | ## P0-2 · Do the pre-merge predictors predict the realised rescue? Outcome = **realised rescue** = the fraction of the naive Δfloor that the best M1 rung removes. Label = above the within-size median. Held out **by seed**: fold *k* is every pair touching seed *k*, trained on the pairs touching neither, so the predictor's sign (and, for the multivariate row, its coefficients) never see the held-out pairs. Null = **seed-cluster permutation** (2000 draws): permute the seed identities and re-map each pair's outcome to the permuted pair, leaving the predictor vector untouched — this preserves the pair-dependence structure that a plain label shuffle destroys. BH-corrected across the predictor family. | substrate | outcome | predictor | n | Spearman | AUROC (held out by seed) | null mean | perm p | BH q | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | pythia-14m | rescue_frac | weight_cosine | 36 | 0.095 | 0.549 | 0.501 | 0.316 | 0.491 | | pythia-14m | rescue_frac | weight_cosine_bn | 36 | 0.092 | 0.460 | 0.499 | 0.646 | 0.799 | | pythia-14m | rescue_frac | d_raw | 36 | -0.072 | 0.478 | 0.498 | 0.582 | 0.749 | | pythia-14m | rescue_frac | qmd_perm | 36 | 0.077 | 0.664 | 0.498 | 0.051 | 0.232 | | pythia-14m | rescue_frac | coord_share_perm | 36 | -0.074 | 0.438 | 0.500 | 0.735 | 0.821 | | pythia-14m | rescue_frac | qmd_orth | 36 | 0.093 | 0.676 | 0.497 | 0.037 | 0.232 | | pythia-14m | rescue_frac | coord_share_orth | 36 | -0.094 | 0.457 | 0.499 | 0.665 | 0.802 | | pythia-14m | rescue_frac | bnd_raw | 36 | -0.025 | 0.543 | 0.499 | 0.341 | 0.514 | | pythia-14m | rescue_frac | bnd_perm | 36 | 0.012 | 0.296 | 0.497 | 0.981 | 1.000 | | pythia-14m | rescue_frac | bnd_orth | 36 | 0.015 | 0.420 | 0.497 | 0.778 | 0.856 | | pythia-14m | rescue_frac | coord_share_bnd_perm | 36 | -0.009 | 0.478 | 0.503 | 0.596 | 0.755 | | pythia-14m | rescue_frac | coord_share_bnd_orth | 36 | -0.074 | 0.540 | 0.497 | 0.362 | 0.529 | | pythia-14m | rescue_frac | cka_mean | 36 | -0.013 | 0.605 | 0.499 | 0.151 | 0.371 | | pythia-14m | rescue_frac | cka_last | 36 | -0.478 | 0.651 | 0.499 | 0.067 | 0.253 | | pythia-14m | rescue_frac | qmd_act_perm | 36 | -0.207 | 0.657 | 0.500 | 0.055 | 0.232 | | pythia-14m | rescue_frac | qmd_act_procrustes | 36 | -0.207 | 0.657 | 0.500 | 0.055 | 0.232 | | pythia-14m | rescue_frac | qmd_act_ot | 36 | -0.050 | 0.568 | 0.501 | 0.255 | 0.448 | | pythia-14m | rescue_frac | task_vector_cosine | 36 | 0.131 | 0.580 | 0.498 | 0.223 | 0.414 | | pythia-14m | rescue_frac | MULTIVARIATE_ridge_all | 36 | 0.254 | 0.620 | 0.501 | 0.114 | 0.311 | | pythia-14m | dfloor_M1best | weight_cosine | 36 | 0.161 | 0.580 | 0.498 | 0.214 | 0.414 | | pythia-14m | dfloor_M1best | weight_cosine_bn | 36 | 0.075 | 0.528 | 0.501 | 0.405 | 0.570 | | pythia-14m | dfloor_M1best | d_raw | 36 | -0.244 | 0.639 | 0.497 | 0.106 | 0.298 | | pythia-14m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_perm | 36 | 0.383 | 0.698 | 0.496 | 0.047 | 0.232 | | pythia-14m | dfloor_M1best | coord_share_perm | 36 | -0.445 | 0.735 | 0.495 | 0.016 | 0.232 | | pythia-14m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_orth | 36 | 0.438 | 0.725 | 0.496 | 0.021 | 0.232 | | pythia-14m | dfloor_M1best | coord_share_orth | 36 | -0.457 | 0.738 | 0.495 | 0.015 | 0.232 | | pythia-14m | dfloor_M1best | bnd_raw | 36 | -0.102 | 0.318 | 0.501 | 0.961 | 1.000 | | pythia-14m | dfloor_M1best | bnd_perm | 36 | -0.002 | 0.222 | 0.502 | 0.997 | 1.000 | | pythia-14m | dfloor_M1best | bnd_orth | 36 | -0.000 | 0.204 | 0.502 | 1.000 | 1.000 | | pythia-14m | dfloor_M1best | coord_share_bnd_perm | 36 | -0.155 | 0.290 | 0.503 | 0.977 | 1.000 | | pythia-14m | dfloor_M1best | coord_share_bnd_orth | 36 | -0.206 | 0.593 | 0.498 | 0.210 | 0.414 | | pythia-14m | dfloor_M1best | cka_mean | 36 | 0.008 | 0.704 | 0.497 | 0.029 | 0.232 | | pythia-14m | dfloor_M1best | cka_last | 36 | -0.292 | 0.605 | 0.501 | 0.204 | 0.414 | | pythia-14m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_act_perm | 36 | -0.161 | 0.639 | 0.503 | 0.070 | 0.253 | | pythia-14m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_act_procrustes | 36 | -0.161 | 0.639 | 0.503 | 0.070 | 0.253 | | pythia-14m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_act_ot | 36 | -0.099 | 0.438 | 0.502 | 0.726 | 0.821 | | pythia-14m | dfloor_M1best | task_vector_cosine | 36 | 0.419 | 0.704 | 0.495 | 0.046 | 0.232 | | pythia-14m | dfloor_M1best | MULTIVARIATE_ridge_all | 36 | 0.539 | 0.778 | 0.497 | 0.003 | 0.228 | | pythia-160m | rescue_frac | weight_cosine | 15 | 0.364 | 0.714 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | rescue_frac | weight_cosine_bn | 15 | 0.171 | 0.500 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | rescue_frac | d_raw | 15 | -0.393 | 0.714 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | rescue_frac | qmd_perm | 15 | -0.425 | 0.571 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | rescue_frac | coord_share_perm | 15 | 0.371 | 0.554 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | rescue_frac | qmd_orth | 15 | -0.450 | 0.554 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | rescue_frac | coord_share_orth | 15 | 0.371 | 0.518 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | rescue_frac | bnd_raw | 15 | -0.411 | 0.643 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | rescue_frac | bnd_perm | 15 | -0.264 | 0.696 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | rescue_frac | bnd_orth | 15 | -0.354 | 0.625 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | rescue_frac | coord_share_bnd_perm | 15 | 0.211 | 0.696 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | rescue_frac | coord_share_bnd_orth | 15 | 0.193 | 0.571 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | rescue_frac | cka_mean | 15 | -0.121 | 0.571 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | rescue_frac | cka_last | 15 | 0.364 | 0.696 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | rescue_frac | qmd_act_perm | 15 | -0.079 | 0.214 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | rescue_frac | qmd_act_procrustes | 15 | -0.079 | 0.214 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | rescue_frac | qmd_act_ot | 15 | -0.111 | 0.232 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | rescue_frac | task_vector_cosine | 15 | 0.357 | 0.696 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | rescue_frac | MULTIVARIATE_ridge_all | 15 | 0.100 | 0.411 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | dfloor_M1best | weight_cosine | 15 | -0.129 | 0.661 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | dfloor_M1best | weight_cosine_bn | 15 | 0.064 | 0.393 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | dfloor_M1best | d_raw | 15 | 0.161 | 0.375 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_perm | 15 | 0.161 | 0.679 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | dfloor_M1best | coord_share_perm | 15 | -0.089 | 0.500 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_orth | 15 | 0.079 | 0.393 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | dfloor_M1best | coord_share_orth | 15 | -0.046 | 0.339 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | dfloor_M1best | bnd_raw | 15 | -0.507 | 0.589 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | dfloor_M1best | bnd_perm | 15 | -0.636 | 0.696 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | dfloor_M1best | bnd_orth | 15 | -0.482 | 0.571 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | dfloor_M1best | coord_share_bnd_perm | 15 | 0.496 | 0.696 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | dfloor_M1best | coord_share_bnd_orth | 15 | 0.314 | 0.518 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | dfloor_M1best | cka_mean | 15 | -0.146 | 0.411 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | dfloor_M1best | cka_last | 15 | 0.521 | 0.768 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_act_perm | 15 | -0.143 | 0.268 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_act_procrustes | 15 | -0.143 | 0.268 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_act_ot | 15 | -0.189 | 0.286 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | dfloor_M1best | task_vector_cosine | 15 | 0.525 | 0.696 | — | — | — | | pythia-160m | dfloor_M1best | MULTIVARIATE_ridge_all | 15 | 0.507 | 0.679 | — | — | — | | pythia-31m | rescue_frac | weight_cosine | 36 | 0.274 | 0.704 | 0.504 | 0.029 | 0.232 | | pythia-31m | rescue_frac | weight_cosine_bn | 36 | 0.217 | 0.642 | 0.504 | 0.082 | 0.283 | | pythia-31m | rescue_frac | d_raw | 36 | -0.321 | 0.704 | 0.505 | 0.025 | 0.232 | | pythia-31m | rescue_frac | qmd_perm | 36 | -0.493 | 0.691 | 0.505 | 0.048 | 0.232 | | pythia-31m | rescue_frac | coord_share_perm | 36 | 0.460 | 0.654 | 0.505 | 0.095 | 0.298 | | pythia-31m | rescue_frac | qmd_orth | 36 | -0.405 | 0.562 | 0.503 | 0.284 | 0.450 | | pythia-31m | rescue_frac | coord_share_orth | 36 | 0.346 | 0.571 | 0.504 | 0.281 | 0.450 | | pythia-31m | rescue_frac | bnd_raw | 36 | -0.391 | 0.701 | 0.506 | 0.032 | 0.232 | | pythia-31m | rescue_frac | bnd_perm | 36 | -0.490 | 0.750 | 0.506 | 0.011 | 0.232 | | pythia-31m | rescue_frac | bnd_orth | 36 | -0.380 | 0.608 | 0.505 | 0.165 | 0.372 | | pythia-31m | rescue_frac | coord_share_bnd_perm | 36 | 0.427 | 0.710 | 0.505 | 0.025 | 0.232 | | pythia-31m | rescue_frac | coord_share_bnd_orth | 36 | 0.385 | 0.648 | 0.505 | 0.104 | 0.298 | | pythia-31m | rescue_frac | cka_mean | 36 | 0.100 | 0.546 | 0.503 | 0.345 | 0.514 | | pythia-31m | rescue_frac | cka_last | 36 | 0.039 | 0.380 | 0.499 | 0.877 | 0.939 | | pythia-31m | rescue_frac | qmd_act_perm | 36 | -0.060 | 0.444 | 0.500 | 0.722 | 0.821 | | pythia-31m | rescue_frac | qmd_act_procrustes | 36 | -0.060 | 0.444 | 0.500 | 0.722 | 0.821 | | pythia-31m | rescue_frac | qmd_act_ot | 36 | 0.010 | 0.401 | 0.501 | 0.841 | 0.913 | | pythia-31m | rescue_frac | task_vector_cosine | 36 | -0.123 | 0.481 | 0.499 | 0.577 | 0.749 | | pythia-31m | rescue_frac | MULTIVARIATE_ridge_all | 36 | 0.403 | 0.707 | 0.505 | 0.035 | 0.232 | | pythia-31m | dfloor_M1best | weight_cosine | 36 | -0.222 | 0.574 | 0.500 | 0.270 | 0.448 | | pythia-31m | dfloor_M1best | weight_cosine_bn | 36 | -0.084 | 0.605 | 0.497 | 0.144 | 0.365 | | pythia-31m | dfloor_M1best | d_raw | 36 | 0.234 | 0.593 | 0.500 | 0.222 | 0.414 | | pythia-31m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_perm | 36 | 0.243 | 0.633 | 0.503 | 0.166 | 0.372 | | pythia-31m | dfloor_M1best | coord_share_perm | 36 | -0.230 | 0.633 | 0.503 | 0.166 | 0.372 | | pythia-31m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_orth | 36 | 0.289 | 0.670 | 0.502 | 0.101 | 0.298 | | pythia-31m | dfloor_M1best | coord_share_orth | 36 | -0.271 | 0.670 | 0.503 | 0.103 | 0.298 | | pythia-31m | dfloor_M1best | bnd_raw | 36 | 0.163 | 0.633 | 0.503 | 0.132 | 0.346 | | pythia-31m | dfloor_M1best | bnd_perm | 36 | 0.105 | 0.577 | 0.503 | 0.260 | 0.448 | | pythia-31m | dfloor_M1best | bnd_orth | 36 | 0.114 | 0.611 | 0.501 | 0.186 | 0.405 | | pythia-31m | dfloor_M1best | coord_share_bnd_perm | 36 | -0.036 | 0.460 | 0.503 | 0.652 | 0.799 | | pythia-31m | dfloor_M1best | coord_share_bnd_orth | 36 | -0.011 | 0.534 | 0.500 | 0.393 | 0.564 | | pythia-31m | dfloor_M1best | cka_mean | 36 | 0.112 | 0.577 | 0.498 | 0.202 | 0.414 | | pythia-31m | dfloor_M1best | cka_last | 36 | -0.074 | 0.488 | 0.501 | 0.563 | 0.749 | | pythia-31m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_act_perm | 36 | 0.073 | 0.574 | 0.500 | 0.271 | 0.448 | | pythia-31m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_act_procrustes | 36 | 0.073 | 0.574 | 0.500 | 0.271 | 0.448 | | pythia-31m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_act_ot | 36 | 0.005 | 0.528 | 0.498 | 0.415 | 0.573 | | pythia-31m | dfloor_M1best | task_vector_cosine | 36 | 0.002 | 0.426 | 0.498 | 0.730 | 0.821 | | pythia-31m | dfloor_M1best | MULTIVARIATE_ridge_all | 36 | -0.111 | 0.500 | 0.501 | 0.516 | 0.701 | | pythia-70m | rescue_frac | weight_cosine | 33 | 0.096 | 0.357 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | rescue_frac | weight_cosine_bn | 33 | -0.009 | 0.404 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | rescue_frac | d_raw | 33 | 0.011 | 0.489 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | rescue_frac | qmd_perm | 33 | -0.380 | 0.699 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | rescue_frac | coord_share_perm | 33 | 0.389 | 0.728 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | rescue_frac | qmd_orth | 33 | -0.415 | 0.691 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | rescue_frac | coord_share_orth | 33 | 0.383 | 0.724 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | rescue_frac | bnd_raw | 33 | -0.056 | 0.357 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | rescue_frac | bnd_perm | 33 | -0.386 | 0.750 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | rescue_frac | bnd_orth | 33 | -0.232 | 0.640 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | rescue_frac | coord_share_bnd_perm | 33 | 0.444 | 0.768 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | rescue_frac | coord_share_bnd_orth | 33 | 0.340 | 0.647 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | rescue_frac | cka_mean | 33 | 0.499 | 0.702 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | rescue_frac | cka_last | 33 | 0.464 | 0.688 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | rescue_frac | qmd_act_perm | 33 | -0.498 | 0.724 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | rescue_frac | qmd_act_procrustes | 33 | -0.498 | 0.724 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | rescue_frac | qmd_act_ot | 33 | -0.474 | 0.721 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | rescue_frac | task_vector_cosine | 33 | 0.068 | 0.596 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | rescue_frac | MULTIVARIATE_ridge_all | 33 | 0.465 | 0.732 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | dfloor_M1best | weight_cosine | 33 | 0.085 | 0.621 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | dfloor_M1best | weight_cosine_bn | 33 | 0.005 | 0.607 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | dfloor_M1best | d_raw | 33 | -0.067 | 0.445 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_perm | 33 | -0.379 | 0.636 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | dfloor_M1best | coord_share_perm | 33 | 0.347 | 0.599 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_orth | 33 | -0.315 | 0.629 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | dfloor_M1best | coord_share_orth | 33 | 0.245 | 0.544 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | dfloor_M1best | bnd_raw | 33 | -0.156 | 0.585 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | dfloor_M1best | bnd_perm | 33 | -0.467 | 0.728 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | dfloor_M1best | bnd_orth | 33 | -0.233 | 0.651 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | dfloor_M1best | coord_share_bnd_perm | 33 | 0.507 | 0.739 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | dfloor_M1best | coord_share_bnd_orth | 33 | 0.295 | 0.673 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | dfloor_M1best | cka_mean | 33 | 0.432 | 0.662 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | dfloor_M1best | cka_last | 33 | 0.590 | 0.776 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_act_perm | 33 | -0.441 | 0.647 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_act_procrustes | 33 | -0.441 | 0.647 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | dfloor_M1best | qmd_act_ot | 33 | -0.397 | 0.640 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | dfloor_M1best | task_vector_cosine | 33 | 0.178 | 0.562 | — | — | — | | pythia-70m | dfloor_M1best | MULTIVARIATE_ridge_all | 33 | 0.388 | 0.647 | — | — | — | ### Does a predictor fitted on one substrate transfer to another? Leave-one-**size**-out. Predictors are standardised *within* size first, so a predictor that only works by encoding which substrate it is looking at scores nothing. The sign (and the ridge coefficients) come from the other sizes only. Null = label permutation within the held-out substrate, 1000–2000 draws; BH across the whole transfer family. | predictor | outcome | held-out substrate | n | AUROC | null mean | perm p | BH q | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | MULTIVARIATE_ridge_all | rescue_frac | pythia-14m | 36 | 0.352 | 0.500 | 0.925 | 0.992 | | MULTIVARIATE_ridge_all | rescue_frac | pythia-160m | 15 | 0.571 | 0.496 | 0.346 | 0.630 | | MULTIVARIATE_ridge_all | rescue_frac | pythia-31m | 36 | 0.667 | 0.498 | 0.041 | 0.328 | | MULTIVARIATE_ridge_all | rescue_frac | pythia-70m | 33 | 0.559 | 0.502 | 0.291 | 0.583 | | coord_share_bnd_perm | rescue_frac | pythia-14m | 36 | 0.515 | 0.501 | 0.463 | 0.740 | | coord_share_bnd_perm | rescue_frac | pythia-160m | 15 | 0.696 | 0.497 | 0.130 | 0.400 | | coord_share_bnd_perm | rescue_frac | pythia-31m | 36 | 0.710 | 0.501 | 0.026 | 0.260 | | coord_share_bnd_perm | rescue_frac | pythia-70m | 33 | 0.768 | 0.502 | 0.005 | 0.140 | | qmd_act_perm | rescue_frac | pythia-14m | 36 | 0.657 | 0.501 | 0.067 | 0.344 | | qmd_act_perm | rescue_frac | pythia-160m | 15 | 0.429 | 0.500 | 0.693 | 0.977 | | qmd_act_perm | rescue_frac | pythia-31m | 36 | 0.525 | 0.497 | 0.387 | 0.672 | | qmd_act_perm | rescue_frac | pythia-70m | 33 | 0.724 | 0.495 | 0.007 | 0.140 | | cka_mean | rescue_frac | pythia-14m | 36 | 0.599 | 0.495 | 0.129 | 0.400 | | cka_mean | rescue_frac | pythia-160m | 15 | 0.304 | 0.502 | 0.915 | 0.992 | | cka_mean | rescue_frac | pythia-31m | 36 | 0.540 | 0.500 | 0.346 | 0.630 | | cka_mean | rescue_frac | pythia-70m | 33 | 0.298 | 0.497 | 0.972 | 0.992 | | weight_cosine | rescue_frac | pythia-14m | 36 | 0.580 | 0.506 | 0.242 | 0.566 | | weight_cosine | rescue_frac | pythia-160m | 15 | 0.714 | 0.505 | 0.081 | 0.344 | | weight_cosine | rescue_frac | pythia-31m | 36 | 0.704 | 0.500 | 0.018 | 0.240 | | weight_cosine | rescue_frac | pythia-70m | 33 | 0.467 | 0.496 | 0.627 | 0.962 | **SET 4, held out by language pair.** n = 4 language pairs. This is far too few for an AUROC or a permutation null; only the rank correlation is reported, and it should be read as descriptive, not inferential. | predictor | Spearman vs realised rescue | |---|---| | weight_cosine | -0.400 | | d_raw | -0.400 | | qmd_perm | -0.400 | | coord_share_perm | 0.000 | | qmd_orth | -0.400 | | coord_share_orth | 0.000 | | bnd_raw | 0.200 | | bnd_perm | 0.200 | | bnd_orth | 0.200 | | coord_share_bnd_perm | 0.000 | | coord_share_bnd_orth | 0.000 | | cka_mean | -0.400 | | cka_last | 0.400 | | qmd_act_perm | 0.400 | | qmd_act_procrustes | 0.400 | | qmd_act_ot | 0.400 | | vocab_overlap | -0.200 | | weight_cosine_body | -0.200 | ## Control · is the obstruction the INIT seed or the DATA order? SET 1's main grid uses `pythia--seed{n}`, which reseeds **both** the initialisation and the data order. `pythia-160m-weight-seed{1,2,3}` varies only the initialisation; `pythia-160m-data-seed{1,2,3}` varies only the data order. Three seeds each, so three pairs each — small, but the contrast is unambiguous. | seed variant | n pairs | parent floor | naive Δfloor | Δfloor perm | Δfloor Procrustes | rescue, best | weight coordinate share | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | 160m-data | 3 | 3.27 | 3.13 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.9% | 0.0139 | | 160m-weight | 3 | 3.25 | 3.10 | 2.79 | 2.79 | 10.0% | 0.0123 | | 160m (init+data, main grid) | 16 | 3.25 | 8.56 | 6.67 | 6.28 | 28.6% | 0.0936 | Reading: models that differ **only in data order** start far closer together — the naive merge's Δfloor is a small fraction of the reseeded-init case — and alignment does **nothing** for them, because there is no coordinate mismatch to remove. Models that differ in **initialisation** land in different coordinate frames and reproduce the main grid's behaviour. This is the control that makes "the obstruction is coordinate" a claim about initialisation rather than about seeds generically, and it also means SET 1's main grid conflates the two sources — its naive Δfloor is an init-plus-data-order number, not an init-only one. ### What P0-2 comes to **Within a single substrate, nothing predicts the realised rescue.** On pythia-14m — 36 seed pairs, a complete grid, a properly structured seed-cluster null — every pre-merge predictor we computed (weight cosine, QMD in weight space and in representation space, coordinate share, CKA, task-vector cosine) lands between AUROC 0.30 and 0.68 held out by seed, and **not one survives BH correction**. The multivariate ridge over all of them does no better. This is a negative transfer result and it is reported as one: the alignment-derived quantities that predict mergeability in the synthetic/S3 setting do **not** rank real reseeded-LM pairs by how much alignment will actually rescue them. **Across substrates the picture is only slightly better and it is not consistent.** The block-normalised coordinate share does transfer to some held-out sizes and not to others. Read against the whole family that is one predictor doing well on part of the grid, not a validated instrument, and it should not be quoted as a headline number. Two honest caveats in the other direction. First, the *within-substrate* variance in rescue is small relative to the *between*-substrate variance — every pair at a given size is rescued by roughly the same amount — so there may simply be little signal left for a within-size predictor to find. Second, the seed-cluster null is conservative by construction. Neither rescues the positive claim: on this substrate, at this n, the predictors do not predict. ## Coverage — what ran and what did not | cell | n | status | what was measured | |---|---|---|---| | SET 1 · pythia-14m | 36/36 seed pairs | complete | M0 naive · M1 permutation · M1 Procrustes · M2 task-arithmetic · M3 TIES; barrier for M0 and M1-perm | | SET 1 · pythia-70m | 34/36 seed pairs | partial | M0 naive · M1 permutation · M1 Procrustes · M2 task-arithmetic · M3 TIES; barrier for M0 and M1-perm | | SET 1 · pythia-160m | 16/36 seed pairs | partial | M0 naive · M1 permutation · M1 Procrustes · M2 task-arithmetic · M3 TIES; barrier for M0 and M1-perm | | SET 4 · goldfish eng×X | 4/4 language pairs (nld_Latn, spa_Latn, ell_Grek, pol_Latn) | complete | M0 naive · M1a vocab-transport · M1b/c vocab+unit-aligned (perm/Procrustes) · M1d/e forced-residual · M1f unit-aligned only | | BLiMP accuracy · SET 1 (English) | pythia-14m: 36/36 pairs, pythia-70m: 9/36 pairs | RAN | 67 paradigms from `nyu-mll/blimp`, minimal-pair sentence-logprob scoring, on the SAME merges as the Δfloor tables | | MultiBLiMP / any accuracy benchmark · SET 4 (Goldfish) | 0 | **NOT RUN** | No multilingual benchmark harness was close to wired inside this window; deliberately not built from scratch. SET 4's numbers are likelihood only and say nothing about accuracy. | | B-GPT joint bilingual reference | 0 | **NOT RUN** | Out of window; the merged models are not compared against a jointly-trained bilingual ceiling. | | Goldfish 160m/other tiers, other language pairs | 0 | NOT RUN | Only the 1000mb tier and the four audit languages. | ## Threats to validity, stated plainly - **Likelihood ≠ accuracy.** Repeated because it is the single most load-bearing caveat here. - **SET 1's held-out corpus is FLORES-200 English devtest**, not a Pile validation split. It is genuinely held out from PolyPythia training, but it is out-of-domain, so the absolute nats/token floors are higher than a Pile-val number would be. Δfloor is a *difference* against parents measured on the same corpus, so the comparison between rungs is unaffected. - **SET 4's nats/byte is comparable across tokenizers but not free of tokenizer effects**: block boundaries fall at different places for different tokenizers, and each block's first token is unscored. With ~30k tokens per evaluation this is a sub-1% effect. - **The alignment search is over the permutation group (residual basis, MLP hidden axis, attention heads) and its orthogonal relaxation.** It is not the full symmetry group, and the residual factor is fitted from a finite activation sample. A better aligner could raise the M1 rungs; nothing here bounds how far. - **SET 4's n = 4 language pairs.** Any predictor claim on that substrate is descriptive. ## Files ``` results/set1_{14m,70m,160m}.jsonl per-pair raw records (predictors, rungs, barriers, align info) results/set1_pairs.csv per-pair flat table, SET 1 results/set4_goldfish.jsonl per-language-pair raw records, SET 4 results/set4_pairs.csv per-language-pair flat table, SET 4 results/rung_summary.csv rung x substrate x metric summary results/predictor_auroc.csv SET 1 predictor table: held-out AUROC, permutation null, BH q results/set4_predictors.csv SET 4 predictor rank correlations (n=4, descriptive) figs/set1_dfloor_by_rung.png Δfloor by rung, per size figs/set1_rescue_vs_predictor.png realised rescue vs coordinate share / CKA figs/set1_roc.png held-out-by-seed ROC figs/set4_dfloor.png Δfloor by rung, Goldfish ```