EntroPrefill: Renyi-Guided Context Pruning with Conditional Stability Guarantees for Retrieval-Augmented Generation
On the map: Retrieval-augmented generation → Generation and context integration
Abstract (arXiv)
Mid-prefill pruning can reduce the sequence processed by deeper transformer layers, but attention concentration alone does not certify that discarded context is dispensable. We formulate EntroPrefill as a Renyi-guided proposal mechanism coupled to explicit constraints on discarded attention mass. Sink-isolated, regularized head pooling respects grouped-query attention while exposing a quantitative trade-off between specialization and worst-head coverage. We derive a mixture-to-head deletion envelope, a computable upper bound on feasible token removal, and a finite-sample observer guarantee that remains valid when the pruning layer is selected adaptively. We then establish a conditional transformer perturbation bound with explicit sufficient Lipschitz constants and a first-token decision-margin corollary. A counterexample shows why shallow observations alone cannot imply an unconditional future-output guarantee. The systems analysis distinguishes query-head unions, physical page allocation, and KV-transfer payload, and gives an arithmetic break-even condition for pruning. This manuscript is theoretical in scope: it defines the procedure, its assumptions, and its formal limits, but does not report measured acceleration or task-accuracy preservation. Experiments are reserved for subsequent validation of the assumptions, approximation tightness, and end-to-end resource trade-offs.
Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Generation and context integration, one of 15 directions in Retrieval-augmented generation. Builds on 15 of its 18 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 7 Oct 2026.
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