In plain words: By measuring how often an AI agent moves between generated states, the study estimates which way its generation tends to go. The moves obey detailed balance—forward and reverse changes cancel like in physics—hinting models learn hidden energy landscapes, not explicit rules.
Abstract
Large language model (LLM)-driven agents are emerging as a powerful new paradigm for solving complex problems. Despite the empirical success of these practices, a theoretical framework to understand and unify their macroscopic dynamics remains lacking. This Letter proposes a method based on the least action principle to estimate the underlying generative directionality of LLMs embedded within agents. By experimentally measuring the transition probabilities between LLM-generated states, we statistically discover a detailed balance in LLM-generated transitions, indicating that LLM generation may not be achieved by generally learning rule sets and strategies, but rather by implicitly learning a class of underlying potential functions that may transcend different LLM architectures and prompt templates. To our knowledge, this is the first discovery of a macroscopic physical law in LLM generative dynamics that does not depend on specific model details. This work is an attempt to establish a macroscopic dynamics theory of complex AI systems, aiming to elevate the study of AI agents from a collection of engineering practices to a science built on effective measurements that are predictable and quantifiable.
Zhuo-Yang Song, Qing-Hong Cao, Ming-xing Luo, Hua Xing Zhu
arXiv:2512.10047 · cs.LG, cond-mat.stat-mech, cs.AI, nlin.AO, physics.data-an · submitted Dec 10, 2025
abstract · pdf · html · 20 pages, 12 figures, 5 tables