Zero Is Not Nothing: When an Inactive Token Still Changes the Model
TL;DR for operators If adding an unused token whose hidden state is exactly zero changes existing tokens or predictions, that token is not actually inactive. Standard softmax attention can produce exactly this behavior: a visible zero source still contributes normalization mass even when its value contribution is zero. OAttention1 addresses this at the attention operator by giving each token a norm-derived presence coefficient. The coefficient gates what a receiver emits and, separately, how much support a source contributes to the attention numerator and denominator. Exact zero then means zero participation under the declared operator contract. ...