{"state_type":"pith_open_graph_state","state_version":"1.0","pith_number":"pith:2026:N6EHFQ4SAMOO2YAEHDLKBYNFCO","merge_version":"pith-open-graph-merge-v1","event_count":2,"valid_event_count":2,"invalid_event_count":0,"equivocation_count":0,"current":{"canonical_record":{"metadata":{"abstract_canon_sha256":"11cbbd0a7f762409cb14dd72e1f7e55575ef69fc655441291014f8c46f1278cf","cross_cats_sorted":[],"license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","primary_cat":"cs.LG","submitted_at":"2026-06-03T23:42:09Z","title_canon_sha256":"2a1d9091cd71edc5c696910b20f29a5fad700b2edbc9e4b48efb43bc913a3ad2"},"schema_version":"1.0","source":{"id":"2606.05516","kind":"arxiv","version":1}},"source_aliases":[{"alias_kind":"arxiv","alias_value":"2606.05516","created_at":"2026-06-05T01:14:53Z"},{"alias_kind":"arxiv_version","alias_value":"2606.05516v1","created_at":"2026-06-05T01:14:53Z"},{"alias_kind":"doi","alias_value":"10.48550/arxiv.2606.05516","created_at":"2026-06-05T01:14:53Z"},{"alias_kind":"pith_short_12","alias_value":"N6EHFQ4SAMOO","created_at":"2026-06-05T01:14:53Z"},{"alias_kind":"pith_short_16","alias_value":"N6EHFQ4SAMOO2YAE","created_at":"2026-06-05T01:14:53Z"},{"alias_kind":"pith_short_8","alias_value":"N6EHFQ4S","created_at":"2026-06-05T01:14:53Z"}],"graph_snapshots":[{"event_id":"sha256:f27bbed4b5b73904459e8a3028a9aff4bef7131c8a5b0305a9187c93dd6a9c59","target":"graph","created_at":"2026-06-05T01:14:53Z","signer":{"key_id":"pith-v1-2026-05","public_key_fingerprint":"8d4b5ee74e4693bcd1df2446408b0d54","signer_id":"pith.science","signer_type":"pith_registry"},"payload":{"graph_snapshot":{"author_claims":{"count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","strong_count":0},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1","claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"integrity":{"available":true,"clean":true,"detectors_run":[],"endpoint":"/pith/2606.05516/integrity.json","findings":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938","summary":{"advisory":0,"by_detector":{},"critical":0,"informational":0}},"paper":{"abstract_excerpt":"Zeroth-order (ZO) optimization enables memory-efficient fine-tuning of large language models (LLMs) using only forward passes, but it remains unclear how useful adaptation is distributed across layers. In this work, we reveal a surprising phenomenon: ZO fine-tuning is sharply dominated by a single decoding layer. Across multiple LLM families and downstream tasks, fine-tuning this dominant layer alone consistently matches or even exceeds full-model ZO fine-tuning. We further show that the dominant layer is task-agnostic but model-specific, and can be identified before training through a simple ","authors_text":"Abeer Matar Almalky, Adnan Siraj Rakin, Deliang Fan, Li Yang, Sen Lin, Shuteng Niu, Wanhao Yu, Yihang Zuo, Zheng Wang, Ziyan Wang","cross_cats":[],"headline":"","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","primary_cat":"cs.LG","submitted_at":"2026-06-03T23:42:09Z","title":"Dominant-Layer ZO: A Single Layer Dominates Zeroth-Order Fine-Tuning of LLMs"},"references":{"count":0,"internal_anchors":0,"resolved_work":0,"sample":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2606.05516","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"created_at":null,"id":null,"model_set":{},"one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"pith_extraction_headline":"","strongest_claim":"","weakest_assumption":""}},"verdict_id":null}}],"author_attestations":[],"timestamp_anchors":[],"storage_attestations":[],"citation_signatures":[],"replication_records":[],"corrections":[],"mirror_hints":[],"record_created":{"event_id":"sha256:8622b5c9c49ac8c70b43982a71cfca0991ef630d537d9e4452f96a23f1509c9b","target":"record","created_at":"2026-06-05T01:14:53Z","signer":{"key_id":"pith-v1-2026-05","public_key_fingerprint":"8d4b5ee74e4693bcd1df2446408b0d54","signer_id":"pith.science","signer_type":"pith_registry"},"payload":{"attestation_state":"computed","canonical_record":{"metadata":{"abstract_canon_sha256":"11cbbd0a7f762409cb14dd72e1f7e55575ef69fc655441291014f8c46f1278cf","cross_cats_sorted":[],"license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","primary_cat":"cs.LG","submitted_at":"2026-06-03T23:42:09Z","title_canon_sha256":"2a1d9091cd71edc5c696910b20f29a5fad700b2edbc9e4b48efb43bc913a3ad2"},"schema_version":"1.0","source":{"id":"2606.05516","kind":"arxiv","version":1}},"canonical_sha256":"6f8872c392031ced600438d6a0e1a513b29115d92ccf4f6265e3e839fcd66158","receipt":{"algorithm":"ed25519","builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1","canonical_sha256":"6f8872c392031ced600438d6a0e1a513b29115d92ccf4f6265e3e839fcd66158","first_computed_at":"2026-06-05T01:14:53.455631Z","key_id":"pith-v1-2026-05","kind":"pith_receipt","last_reissued_at":"2026-06-05T01:14:53.455631Z","public_key_fingerprint":"8d4b5ee74e4693bcd1df2446408b0d54","receipt_version":"0.3","signature_b64":"iqmit6sMYZm8fw+qVHR+9bJHS320Qkz9emY7m1c1aNU532tM5MYjSYatleEZicL47yJ8mDscOjXOQU5s+CNnCQ==","signature_status":"signed_v1","signed_at":"2026-06-05T01:14:53.456150Z","signed_message":"canonical_sha256_bytes"},"source_id":"2606.05516","source_kind":"arxiv","source_version":1}}},"equivocations":[],"invalid_events":[],"applied_event_ids":["sha256:8622b5c9c49ac8c70b43982a71cfca0991ef630d537d9e4452f96a23f1509c9b","sha256:f27bbed4b5b73904459e8a3028a9aff4bef7131c8a5b0305a9187c93dd6a9c59"],"state_sha256":"4729fd551e4a02a2d528ab460d851dfeb895be976eb09295c1835495e69a20b4"}