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Preprint . 2026
License: CC BY
Data sources: Datacite
ZENODO
Preprint . 2026
License: CC BY
Data sources: Datacite
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Shaped Noise Injection at Inference Time: Domain Precision, Loop Breaking, and the Terminal Measurement Limit

Authors: McEntire, Jeremy;

Shaped Noise Injection at Inference Time: Domain Precision, Loop Breaking, and the Terminal Measurement Limit

Abstract

Can noise shaped to domain-discriminative directions in activation space control inference-time output distributions? This paper tests the thesis across ten experimental phases on Qwen 2.5 models from 0.5B to 7B parameters, using INLP-discovered domain directions as the noise shaping basis. Shaped noise achieves modest domain-specific entropy reductions (up to 6.1% for legal at 7B) and breaks 100% of repetition loops at both 3B and 7B, outperforming temperature scaling and matching repetition penalty on escape rate while achieving near-perfect token uniqueness (0.99+). However, cross-domain selectivity is fundamentally limited. All correction attempts — scalar cancellation, subspace decomposition, and optimal linear correction via matrix inversion — fail. The root cause is identified as the terminal measurement problem: the response matrix characterizes the system's input-output mapping but cannot invert the nonlinear transformations that generate cross-domain bleed during the forward pass. In d=3,584 dimensions, concentration of measure guarantees that geometric orthogonality of INLP directions is uninformative about functional overlap. This result constrains the entire class of direction-space intervention methods.

Paper 24 in the Structural Compression Theory research program. Series: Activation Geometry.

Keywords

shaped noise injection, inference-time intervention, language models, INLP, terminal measurement problem, repetition loop breaking, concentration of measure, activation geometry

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
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Average
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