ml-explore / ml-explore/mlx

[BUG] Complex vjps are wrong for arcsin/arccos/arctan/arcsinh/arccosh/arctanh (missing conjugate)

Open
#3,778 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Dominant language
C++
Stars
28.5k
Forks
2.3k
Avg merge
3d 8h
Merged PRs (30d)
62

Description

Describe the bug

The inverse trigonometric / hyperbolic ops return the wrong gradient for complex inputs: their vjp delegates to their jvp, so the conjugate is dropped. For a holomorphic f the vjp must be cotangent * conj(f'(z)).

Affected: arccos, arccosh, arcsin, arcsinh, arctan, arctanh.

This is the same issue fixed for square/sin/tanh/… in #3766.

To Reproduce
import mlx.core as mx
z = mx.array(0.3 + 0.2j, mx.complex64)
g = mx.array(1.0 + 1.0j, mx.complex64)
vjp = mx.vjp(mx.arctan, [z], [g])[1][0]
expected = g * mx.conj(1 / (1 + z**2))   # cotangent * conj(f'(z))
print(vjp, expected)   # differ
Expected behavior

vjp == cotangent * conj(f'(z)), consistent with mx.exp/mx.log and finite differences.

Desktop
  • OS: macOS
  • Version: main (0.32.0.dev)

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the mx.vjp and affected inverse trigonometric and hyperbolic operations described in the issue, then reproduce the complex arctan case from the example. Check the existing implementation and tests for mx.exp, mx.log, and the fix referenced in #3766. Done means all six listed operations produce the conjugated derivative for complex inputs and agree with finite differences.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
machine-learning
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
70/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.