Transporting Task Vectors across Different Architectures without Training
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Abstract (arXiv)
Adapting large pre-trained models to downstream tasks often produces task-specific parameter updates that are expensive to relearn for every model variant. While recent work has shown that such updates can be transferred between models with identical architectures, transferring them across models of different widths remains unexplored. In this work, we introduce Theseus, a training-free method for transporting task updates across heterogeneous-width models. Rather than matching parameters, we characterize a task update by the functional effect it induces on intermediate representations. We formalize task-vector transport as a functional matching problem on observed activations and show that, after aligning representation spaces via orthogonal Procrustes analysis, it admits a stable closed-form solution that preserves the geometry of the update. We evaluate Theseus on vision and language models across different widths, showing consistent improvements over baselines without additional training or backpropagation. Our results show that task updates can be meaningfully transferred across architectures when task identity is defined functionally rather than parametrically. Code is available at https://github.com/apanariello4/merge-and-rebase.
Key facts. Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 39 of its 55 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 13 Feb 2026.
Builds on
39 of 55 references.
References · 39
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27 more
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Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 4.
4 papers.
- 2026Distilling Linearized Behavior into Non-Linear Fine-Tuning for Effective Task Arithmeticcited by 1
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- 2026Rethinking Expert Training for Model Merging with Prompt Learningcited by 0
- 2026Target-Independent Micro-Interventions for Predicting Training Response Across Language-Model Familiescited by 0
- 2026Target-Independent Micro-Interventions for Predicting Training Response Across Language-Model Families8 Sep 2026
- 2026Rethinking Expert Training for Model Merging with Prompt Learning27 Jul 2026
- 2026Bilinear Coordinate Alignment for Training-Free Task-Vector Transfer27 May 2026
- 2026Distilling Linearized Behavior into Non-Linear Fine-Tuning for Effective Task Arithmetic18 May 2026