Geometric Foundations of Tuning without Forgetting in Neural ODEs

In our earlier work, we introduced the principle of Tuning without Forgetting (TwF) for sequential training of neural ODEs, where training samples are added iteratively and parameters are updated within the subspace of control functions that preserves the end-point mapping at previously learned samples on the manifold of output labels in the first-order approximation sense. In this letter, we prove that this parameter subspace forms a Banach submanifold of finite codimension under nonsingular controls, and we characterize its tangent space. This reveals that TwF corresponds to a continuation/deformation of the control function along the tangent space of this Banach submanifold, providing a theoretical foundation for its mapping-preserving (not forgetting) during the sequential training exactly, beyond first-order approximation.

Recommended citation: Geometric Foundations of Tuning without Forgetting in Neural ODEs E Bayram, MA Belabbas, T Başar - arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.03474, 2025 https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.03474