arXiv:2601.21208cs.AIcs.IR2026-01

用强化学习动态决定复杂查询何时拆解、如何合并,提升检索生成系统表现。

When should I search more: Adaptive Complex Query Optimization with Reinforcement Learning

  • 通过自适应拆解与融合模块,智能判断何时扩展搜索
  • 在三个复杂查询数据集上超越现有基线,性能领先
  • 适合构建高效可靠的下一代检索增强生成系统

查询优化是检索增强生成(RAG)系统有效性的重要环节。尽管基于强化学习(RL)的智能体与推理方法在查询优化中展现出潜力,但现有方法多聚焦于单一查询的扩展与抽象。然而真实场景中复杂查询普遍存在,常需并行或串行的多重搜索策略来处理歧义与分解。直接将RL应用于此类复杂情况面临显著挑战:确定最优子查询数量、有效重排序与合并检索结果大幅扩张搜索空间,且奖励设计复杂,易引发训练不稳。为此,我们提出一种名为自适应复杂查询优化(ACQO)的新颖强化学习框架。该框架包含两个核心组件:自适应查询重构(AQR)模块,动态决定是否将查询拆分为多个子查询;以及排序得分融合(RSF)模块,确保结果聚合稳健并提供稳定的奖励信号。为缓解训练不稳定性,采用课程强化学习(CRL)策略,通过两阶段逐步引入更难查询以稳定训练过程。全面实验表明,ACQO在三个复杂查询基准上达到当前最优性能,显著优于主流基线。该框架还展现出更高的计算效率与对不同检索架构的广泛兼容性,成为下一代RAG系统的强大通用解决方案。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Query optimization is a crucial component for the efficacy of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems. While reinforcement learning (RL)-based agentic and reasoning methods have recently emerged as a promising direction on query optimization, most existing approaches focus on the expansion and abstraction of a single query. However, complex user queries are prevalent in real-world scenarios, often requiring multiple parallel and sequential search strategies to handle disambiguation and decomposition. Directly applying RL to these complex cases introduces significant hurdles. Determining the optimal number of sub-queries and effectively re-ranking and merging retrieved documents vastly expands the search space and complicates reward design, frequently leading to training instability. To address these challenges, we propose a novel RL framework called Adaptive Complex Query Optimization (ACQO). Our framework is designed to adaptively determine when and how to expand the search process. It features two core components: an Adaptive Query Reformulation (AQR) module that dynamically decides when to decompose a query into multiple sub-queries, and a Rank-Score Fusion (RSF) module that ensures robust result aggregation and provides stable reward signals for the learning agent. To mitigate training instabilities, we adopt a Curriculum Reinforcement Learning (CRL) approach, which stabilizes the training process by progressively introducing more challenging queries through a two-stage strategy. Our comprehensive experiments demonstrate that ACQO achieves state-of-the-art performance on three complex query benchmarks, significantly outperforming established baselines. The framework also showcases improved computational efficiency and broad compatibility with different retrieval architectures, establishing it as a powerful and generalizable solution for next-generation RAG systems.

查询优化强化学习RAG系统智能检索

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