cs.LGJun 2, 2026

Exact equivariance, kept through training, buys zero-shot generalisation across the symmetry group

Authors: Hongbo Wang

Organizations: Department of Mathematics, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA

Abstract

A latent world model built from an equivariant encoder and predictor inherits a provable symmetry of its training loss: when the dynamics carries a group GG acting on latents by an orthogonal representation ρ(g)ρ(g), the one-step prediction relMSE is exactly invariant across the whole group, so fitting a restricted slice of orientations mathematically determines it on the entire orbit. The symmetry survives a real Muon/AdamW+EMA+VICReg run -- composed residual 106\sim 10^{-6} after training, under any optimiser (intrinsic Vector-Neuron/e3nn parametrisation) -- and one-step error is flat across the group (5-seed medians: equivariant ×1.00\times 1.00 vs a higher-capacity non-equivariant baseline ×12.7\times 12.7 in 2D, ×17.2\times 17.2 in 3D), while that baseline fits the slice but breaks out-of-distribution. The flatness is not a synthetic artefact: on real-robot DROID end-effector trajectories the equivariant model stays flat across the orbit (×1.000\times 1.000, rotation residual 1.5×10161.5\times 10^{-16}) while a 4.5×4.5\times-larger baseline degrades ×11\times 11. One caution is load-bearing: flatness is necessary, not sufficient -- the theorem transports the in-distribution error level unchanged but does not lower it (3D relMSE 0.43\approx 0.43): across-group error is constant, not low. The same isometry lifts to a closed-loop corollary: under a matching equivariant planner the control error is invariant across the group -- float-floor-exact in 2D/SO(2), statistically flat in 3D/SE(3). Stress-tested against Sutton's Bitter Lesson (augmentation, scale, soft-equivariance), each closes at most the across-group task metric, never the float-floor exactness. This is the generalisation-side foundation of a certified-world-models programme (arXiv:2606.13092, 2606.24945, 2606.24946): flatness transports competence, and the trust bounds built on it are downstream products.

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