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LoopQ: Quantization for Recursive Transformers

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Computer Science > Machine Learning

arXiv:2605.16343 (cs)
[Submitted on 8 May 2026]

Title:LoopQ: Quantization for Recursive Transformers

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Abstract:Looped language models (LoopLMs) improve parameter efficiency by recursively reusing Transformer blocks, enabling deeper computation under a fixed model size. However, this reuse makes LoopLMs more fragile under post-training quantization (PTQ). We present the first systematic study of quantization in LoopLMs and identify three challenges: distribution shift across roles, state reuse across loop transitions, and recursive error accumulation. To address these challenges, we propose LoopQ, a loop-aware PTQ framework that preserves a shared quantized backbone while introducing lightweight adaptations. LoopQ combines activation scaling, selective transformation, cross-loop state alignment, and trajectory-aware optimization to reduce distributional mismatch within loops and error accumulation across loops. Experiments across seven benchmarks show that, under W4A4 quantization, LoopQ improves average downstream accuracy by 68.8% and reduces average perplexity by 87.7% compared with the strongest static PTQ baseline.
Subjects: Machine Learning (cs.LG); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)
Cite as: arXiv:2605.16343 [cs.LG]
  (or arXiv:2605.16343v1 [cs.LG] for this version)
  https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.16343
arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

Submission history

From: Rui Fang [view email]
[v1] Fri, 8 May 2026 01:45:28 UTC (485 KB)
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