Oscillatory State-Space Models
T. Konstantin Rusch, Daniela Rus

TL;DR
This paper introduces LinOSS, a stable and universal oscillatory state-space model inspired by neural dynamics, enabling efficient long-range sequence modeling and outperforming existing models on various long-horizon tasks.
Contribution
We propose LinOSS, a novel oscillatory state-space model with stable dynamics and universal approximation capabilities for long sequence learning.
Findings
LinOSS outperforms state-of-the-art models on long-range sequence tasks.
LinOSS achieves nearly 2x speedup over Mamba and LRU on sequences of length 50k.
The model demonstrates superior accuracy in long-horizon forecasting and classification.
Abstract
We propose Linear Oscillatory State-Space models (LinOSS) for efficiently learning on long sequences. Inspired by cortical dynamics of biological neural networks, we base our proposed LinOSS model on a system of forced harmonic oscillators. A stable discretization, integrated over time using fast associative parallel scans, yields the proposed state-space model. We prove that LinOSS produces stable dynamics only requiring nonnegative diagonal state matrix. This is in stark contrast to many previous state-space models relying heavily on restrictive parameterizations. Moreover, we rigorously show that LinOSS is universal, i.e., it can approximate any continuous and causal operator mapping between time-varying functions, to desired accuracy. In addition, we show that an implicit-explicit discretization of LinOSS perfectly conserves the symmetry of time reversibility of the underlying…
Peer Reviews
Decision·ICLR 2025 Oral
The paper demonstrates a cross cutting expertise from dynamical systems analysis through implementation optimization. The design of the ODE is crafting three advantages at three different levels of abstraction simultaneously: enforce theoretically proven stabilization, allow for efficient matrix inversion, and allow for parallel scans of the sequence recurrence. The experiments on time series problems are a good set of problems, and the results of LinOSS stand out against the broad set of compar
One issue with the paper is highlighted in the core claim of pre hoc controlling for “forgetting” versus stability by choosing between LinOSS-IM and IMEX (Line 298). Line 205 claims to demonstrate different advantages between the two methods, but this is not actually evident in the experiments. What characteristics of the problems in Table 1 lead to IM vs. IMEX performing differently? If anything, there is no difference between IM and IMEX in all examples but Worms. Is there something special a
Provides strong theoretical together with intuitive explanations. Contrasts their two proposed methods mathematically and also experimentally. The experimental results are excellent and definitely contributes to the field significantly. Supplementary material is comprehensive.
I think section 3.2 can be written more accessible. I believe Figure 1 is very important but can be made more explanatory.
The paper demonstrates strong theoretical foundations by providing rigorous mathematical analysis of stability conditions, proving universal approximation capability, and establishing clear connections to Hamiltonian systems and symplectic integration. Implementation-wise, it offers a remarkably simple parameterization requiring only non-negative diagonal elements, achieves efficient computation through parallel scans, and presents two complementary variants with different preservation propertie
1. Limited Analysis of Model Interpretability: While based on oscillatory dynamics, lacks discussion of learned frequencies No analysis of how the model captures different timescales 2. Experiment: No ablation studies on the impact of different initialization schemes The implementation details are unclear. For instance, how does it compare to Mamba or S5 in terms of speed, training time, FLOPs, and memory usage? Discussing these aspects could enhance its practical utility.
Code & Models
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Taxonomy
TopicsSimulation Techniques and Applications
MethodsMamba: Linear-Time Sequence Modeling with Selective State Spaces · Balanced Selection
