A Minimal Interpretable Architecture for Zero-Shot Reconstruction of Dynamical Systems
This work addresses the lack of interpretability in existing foundation models for zero-shot dynamical system reconstruction, which often obscure their prediction mechanisms. The authors propose DynaBase, a minimal interpretable architecture comprising only two parameters, that predicts future states via a linear combination of the current latent state and the nearest neighbors—along with their successors—in a contextual memory bank. By integrating model parsimony, nearest-neighbor retrieval, and analytical optimization, DynaBase achieves high-performance zero-shot reconstruction for the first time and yields a one-parameter family of maps that unifies chaotic and periodic dynamics, reconciling conflicting views in the literature. Evaluated across diverse systems, DynaBase outperforms existing models while using orders of magnitude fewer parameters and admits a closed-form MSE solution, enabling direct optimization toward reconstruction metrics.