Distribution and Clusters Approximations as Abstract Domains in Probabilistic Abstract Interpretation to Neural Network Analysis

arXiv cs.AI / 3/27/2026

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Key Points

  • The paper proposes a probabilistic abstract interpretation approach for neural network analysis that studies the density distribution flow over all possible inputs.
  • It adds two new abstract domains/approximation methods—distribution approximation and clusters approximation—to complement existing grid-based abstractions.
  • The authors define corresponding abstract transformers for these methods and provide theoretical justification for how they operate.
  • The paper includes illustrative examples to demonstrate the behavior of the approximations in simple settings.

Abstract

The probabilistic abstract interpretation framework of neural network analysis analyzes a neural network by analyzing its density distribution flow of all possible inputs. The grids approximation is one of abstract domains the framework uses which abstracts concrete space into grids. In this paper, we introduce two novel approximation methods: distribution approximation and clusters approximation. We show how these two methods work in theory with corresponding abstract transformers with help of illustrations of some simple examples.