# Grassmannian Geometry and Global Convergence of Variable Projection for Neural Networks

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.22897 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.22897/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 30 Jan 2026.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Constrained Variable Projection for Structured Problems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.23939/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Training deep neural networks and Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) often leads to ill-conditioned and stiff optimization problems. A key structural feature of these models is that they are linear in the output-layer parameters and nonlinear in the hiddenlayer parameters, yielding a separable nonlinear least-squares formulation. In this work, we study the classical variable projection (VarPro) method for such problems in the context of deep neural networks. We provide a geometric formulation on the Grassmannian and analyze the structure of critical points and convergence properties of the reduced problem. When the feature map is parametrized by a neural network, we show that these properties persist except in rank-deficient regimes, which we address via a regularized Grassmannian framework. Numerical experiments for regression and PINNs, including an efficient solver for the heat equation, illustrate the practical effectiveness of the approach.