mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Identifiability Without Gaussianity: Symbolic World Models and Near-Infinite Temporal Consistency

arXiv 2606.12471 ↗First posted 9 Jun 2026stat.ML cs.CL cs.ETcited by 1

On the map: World models → Latent predictive world models

Abstract (arXiv)

Klindt, LeCun, and Balestriero (arXiv:2605.26379) proved that Joint-Embedding Predictive Architectures (JEPAs) achieve linear identifiability, the linear recovery of the world's true latent variables, if and only if the world's latent dynamics follow a Gaussian, stationary process. This Gaussian boundary implies a fundamental limit on temporal consistency: for any non-Gaussian physical system, the representation error of a statistical World Model grows monotonically with time. We prove that this limit is an artifact of the statistical alignment mechanism, not a property of World Models in general. We introduce the Physics-Grounded Symbolic Architecture (PGSA) and prove three results: (1) a PGSA achieves exact linear identifiability for all physical regimes, regardless of the latent distribution; (2) the per-step error of a PGSA is bounded by numerical precision alone; and (3) as a direct consequence, a PGSA maintains temporal consistency for an unbounded number of transitions, a property we term near-infinite temporal consistency. We further prove that statistical World Models cannot achieve this property for any non-Gaussian system, regardless of model capacity or the volume of training data. The algebraic cores of four of the theorems are formalized in Lean 4 with Mathlib4 v4.31.0 (zero sorry placeholders); the Klindt et al. converse is taken as an external premise. The contrast establishes that symbolic grounding in the causal generator of the world's dynamics is the sufficient condition and, in non-Gaussian regimes, the only condition for near-infinite temporal consistency.

Key facts. Cited by 1 paper in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Latent predictive world models, one of 11 directions in World models. Builds on 12 of its 27 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 9 Jun 2026.

Builds on

12 of 27 references.

Closest ancestors · 3

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2026When Does LeJEPA Learn a World Model?25 May
  2. 2024Revisiting Feature Prediction for Learning Visual Representations from Video15 Feb
  3. 2023Self-Supervised Learning from Images with a Joint-Embedding Predictive Architecture19 Jan

Other references · 9

  1. 2018Neural Ordinary Differential Equationscited by 3,779
  2. 2018Challenging Common Assumptions in the Unsupervised Learning of Disentangled Representationscited by 941
  3. 2018Recurrent World Models Facilitate Policy Evolutioncited by 785
  4. 2019Hamiltonian Neural Networkscited by 712
  5. 2019Variational Autoencoders and Nonlinear ICA: A Unifying Frameworkcited by 503
  6. 2017Deep learning for universal linear embeddings of nonlinear dynamicscited by 494
  7. 2020Discovering Symbolic Models from Deep Learning with Inductive Biasescited by 344
  8. 2016Unsupervised Feature Extraction by Time-Contrastive Learning and Nonlinear ICAcited by 273
  9. 2025LeJEPA: Provable and Scalable Self-Supervised Learning Without the Heuristicscited by 254

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 1.

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  1. 2026On the Identifiability of Controlled World Models
  2. 2026What Can Latent World Models Know? Physical Parameter Identifiability in Multimodal Predictive Representations
  3. 2026Platonic Representation Hypothesis on World Models
  4. 2025Four Principles for Physically Interpretable World Models
  5. 2026DSReg: Provably Recovering Individual World Latents without Reconstruction
  6. 2026Stable and Counterfactually Robust Physical World Models from Imposed Structure and Learned Physics
  7. 2026Physics from Video: Identifiability of Time-Invariant Second-Order ODEs under Minimal Trajectory Conditions
  8. 2026Intrinsic Structure: Spectral Identifiability for Mechanistic Interpretability