arxivcs.LGcs.AImath.AG2026-07-23
TwistedMerge: Certified Higher-Order Diagnostics and Abstention for Model Merging
Model merging combines independently trained or fine-tuned models, but pairwise alignability does not imply globally consistent alignment. We formulate merging as a finite descent problem in which checkpoints are local objects, alignment maps are transitions, and cycle products a…