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Mar 10

ASyMOB: Algebraic Symbolic Mathematical Operations Benchmark

Large language models (LLMs) are rapidly approaching the level of proficiency in university-level symbolic mathematics required for applications in advanced science and technology. However, existing benchmarks fall short in assessing the core skills of LLMs in symbolic mathematics-such as integration, differential equations, and algebraic simplification. To address this gap, we introduce ASyMOB, a novel assessment framework focused exclusively on symbolic manipulation, featuring 17,092 unique math challenges, organized by similarity and complexity. ASyMOB enables analysis of LLM generalization capabilities by comparing performance in problems that differ by simple numerical or symbolic `perturbations'. Evaluated LLMs exhibit substantial degradation in performance for all perturbation types (up to -70.3%), suggesting reliance on memorized patterns rather than deeper understanding of symbolic math, even among models achieving high baseline accuracy. Comparing LLM performance to computer algebra systems, we identify examples where they fail while LLMs succeed, as well as problems solved only by combining both approaches. Models capable of integrated code execution yielded higher accuracy compared to their performance without code, particularly stabilizing weaker models (up to +33.1% for certain perturbation types). Notably, the most advanced models (o4-mini, Gemini 2.5 Flash) demonstrate not only high symbolic math proficiency (scoring 96.8% and 97.6% on the unperturbed set), but also remarkable robustness against perturbations, (-21.7% and -21.2% vs. average -50.4% for the other models). This may indicate a recent "phase transition" in the generalization capabilities of frontier LLMs. It remains to be seen whether the path forward lies in deeper integration with sophisticated external tools, or in developing models so capable that symbolic math systems like CAS become unnecessary.

  • 3 authors
·
May 28, 2025

Categorical semiotics: Foundations for Knowledge Integration

The integration of knowledge extracted from diverse models, whether described by domain experts or generated by machine learning algorithms, has historically been challenged by the absence of a suitable framework for specifying and integrating structures, learning processes, data transformations, and data models or rules. In this work, we extend algebraic specification methods to address these challenges within such a framework. In our work, we tackle the challenging task of developing a comprehensive framework for defining and analyzing deep learning architectures. We believe that previous efforts have fallen short by failing to establish a clear connection between the constraints a model must adhere to and its actual implementation. Our methodology employs graphical structures that resemble Ehresmann's sketches, interpreted within a universe of fuzzy sets. This approach offers a unified theory that elegantly encompasses both deterministic and non-deterministic neural network designs. Furthermore, we highlight how this theory naturally incorporates fundamental concepts from computer science and automata theory. Our extended algebraic specification framework, grounded in graphical structures akin to Ehresmann's sketches, offers a promising solution for integrating knowledge across disparate models and domains. By bridging the gap between domain-specific expertise and machine-generated insights, we pave the way for more comprehensive, collaborative, and effective approaches to knowledge integration and modeling.

  • 1 authors
·
Apr 1, 2024

AI for Mathematics: Progress, Challenges, and Prospects

AI for Mathematics (AI4Math) has emerged as a distinct field that leverages machine learning to navigate mathematical landscapes historically intractable for early symbolic systems. While mid-20th-century symbolic approaches successfully automated formal logic, they faced severe scalability limitations due to the combinatorial explosion of the search space. The recent integration of data-driven approaches has revitalized this pursuit. In this review, we provide a systematic overview of AI4Math, highlighting its primary focus on developing AI models to support mathematical research. Crucially, we emphasize that this is not merely the application of AI to mathematical activities; it also encompasses the development of stronger AI systems where the rigorous nature of mathematics serves as a premier testbed for advancing general reasoning capabilities. We categorize existing research into two complementary directions: problem-specific modeling, involving the design of specialized architectures for distinct mathematical tasks, and general-purpose modeling, focusing on foundation models capable of broader reasoning, retrieval, and exploratory workflows. We conclude by discussing key challenges and prospects, advocating for AI systems that go beyond facilitating formal correctness to enabling the discovery of meaningful results and unified theories, recognizing that the true value of a proof lies in the insights and tools it offers to the broader mathematical landscape.

  • 2 authors
·
Jan 19

One-connection rule for structural equation models

Linear structural equation models are multivariate statistical models encoded by mixed graphs. In particular, the set of covariance matrices for distributions belonging to a linear structural equation model for a fixed mixed graph G=(V, D,B) is parameterized by a rational function with parameters for each vertex and edge in G. This rational parametrization naturally allows for the study of these models from an algebraic and combinatorial point of view. Indeed, this point of view has led to a collection of results in the literature, mainly focusing on questions related to identifiability and determining relationships between covariances (i.e., finding polynomials in the Gaussian vanishing ideal). So far, a large proportion of these results has focused on the case when D, the directed part of the mixed graph G, is acyclic. This is due to the fact that in the acyclic case, the parametrization becomes polynomial and there is a description of the entries of the covariance matrices in terms of a finite sum. We move beyond the acyclic case and give a closed form expression for the entries of the covariance matrices in terms of the one-connections in a graph obtained from D through some small operations. This closed form expression then allows us to show that if G is simple, then the parametrization map is generically finite-to-one. Finally, having a closed form expression for the covariance matrices allows for the development of an algorithm for systematically exploring possible polynomials in the Gaussian vanishing ideal.

  • 4 authors
·
Oct 1, 2022

Proof2Hybrid: Automatic Mathematical Benchmark Synthesis for Proof-Centric Problems

Evaluating the mathematical capability of Large Language Models (LLMs) is a critical yet challenging frontier. Existing benchmarks fall short, particularly for proof-centric problems, as manual creation is unscalable and costly, leaving the true mathematical abilities of LLMs largely unassessed. To overcome these barriers, we propose Proof2Hybrid, the first fully automated framework that synthesizes high-quality, proof-centric benchmarks from natural language mathematical corpora. The key novelty of our solution is Proof2X, a roadmap of converting mathematical proofs into various kinds of questions that are easy to verify. Instructed by this roadmap, we propose a new type of hybrid-formatted questions, named ``m-out-of-n multiple judge questions'', specifically designed to enable robust, automatic evaluation while being resilient to guessing and superficial pattern matching inherent in traditional formats. As a demonstration of our framework, we introduce AlgGeoTest, a benchmark for algebraic geometry--a frontier domain of modern mathematics--comprising 456 challenging items. Our extensive evaluations on state-of-the-art LLMs using AlgGeoTest reveal profound deficits in their comprehension of algebraic geometry, providing a more precise measure of their true mathematical capabilities. Our framework and benchmark pave the way for a new wave of in-depth research into the mathematical intelligence of AI systems.

  • 9 authors
·
Aug 4, 2025

Unsupervised Discovery of Formulas for Mathematical Constants

Ongoing efforts that span over decades show a rise of AI methods for accelerating scientific discovery, yet accelerating discovery in mathematics remains a persistent challenge for AI. Specifically, AI methods were not effective in creation of formulas for mathematical constants because each such formula must be correct for infinite digits of precision, with "near-true" formulas providing no insight toward the correct ones. Consequently, formula discovery lacks a clear distance metric needed to guide automated discovery in this realm. In this work, we propose a systematic methodology for categorization, characterization, and pattern identification of such formulas. The key to our methodology is introducing metrics based on the convergence dynamics of the formulas, rather than on the numerical value of the formula. These metrics enable the first automated clustering of mathematical formulas. We demonstrate this methodology on Polynomial Continued Fraction formulas, which are ubiquitous in their intrinsic connections to mathematical constants, and generalize many mathematical functions and structures. We test our methodology on a set of 1,768,900 such formulas, identifying many known formulas for mathematical constants, and discover previously unknown formulas for pi, ln(2), Gauss', and Lemniscate's constants. The uncovered patterns enable a direct generalization of individual formulas to infinite families, unveiling rich mathematical structures. This success paves the way towards a generative model that creates formulas fulfilling specified mathematical properties, accelerating the rate of discovery of useful formulas.

  • 6 authors
·
Dec 21, 2024

Syzygy of Thoughts: Improving LLM CoT with the Minimal Free Resolution

Chain-of-Thought (CoT) prompting enhances the reasoning of large language models (LLMs) by decomposing problems into sequential steps, mimicking human logic and reducing errors. However, complex tasks with vast solution spaces and vague constraints often exceed the capacity of a single reasoning chain. Inspired by Minimal Free Resolution (MFR) in commutative algebra and algebraic geometry, we propose Syzygy of Thoughts (SoT)-a novel framework that extends CoT by introducing auxiliary, interrelated reasoning paths. SoT captures deeper logical dependencies, enabling more robust and structured problem-solving. MFR decomposes a module into a sequence of free modules with minimal rank, providing a structured analytical approach to complex systems. This method introduces the concepts of "Module", "Betti numbers","Freeness", "Mapping", "Exactness" and "Minimality", enabling the systematic decomposition of the original complex problem into logically complete minimal subproblems while preserving key problem features and reducing reasoning length. We tested SoT across diverse datasets (e.g., GSM8K, MATH) and models (e.g., GPT-4o-mini, Qwen2.5), achieving inference accuracy that matches or surpasses mainstream CoTs standards. Additionally, by aligning the sampling process with algebraic constraints, our approach enhances the scalability of inference time in LLMs, ensuring both transparent reasoning and high performance. Our code will be publicly available at https://github.com/dlMARiA/Syzygy-of-thoughts.

  • 10 authors
·
Apr 13, 2025 2

High-performance symbolic-numerics via multiple dispatch

As mathematical computing becomes more democratized in high-level languages, high-performance symbolic-numeric systems are necessary for domain scientists and engineers to get the best performance out of their machine without deep knowledge of code optimization. Naturally, users need different term types either to have different algebraic properties for them, or to use efficient data structures. To this end, we developed Symbolics.jl, an extendable symbolic system which uses dynamic multiple dispatch to change behavior depending on the domain needs. In this work we detail an underlying abstract term interface which allows for speed without sacrificing generality. We show that by formalizing a generic API on actions independent of implementation, we can retroactively add optimized data structures to our system without changing the pre-existing term rewriters. We showcase how this can be used to optimize term construction and give a 113x acceleration on general symbolic transformations. Further, we show that such a generic API allows for complementary term-rewriting implementations. We demonstrate the ability to swap between classical term-rewriting simplifiers and e-graph-based term-rewriting simplifiers. We showcase an e-graph ruleset which minimizes the number of CPU cycles during expression evaluation, and demonstrate how it simplifies a real-world reaction-network simulation to halve the runtime. Additionally, we show a reaction-diffusion partial differential equation solver which is able to be automatically converted into symbolic expressions via multiple dispatch tracing, which is subsequently accelerated and parallelized to give a 157x simulation speedup. Together, this presents Symbolics.jl as a next-generation symbolic-numeric computing environment geared towards modeling and simulation.

  • 7 authors
·
May 9, 2021

CombiBench: Benchmarking LLM Capability for Combinatorial Mathematics

Neurosymbolic approaches integrating large language models with formal reasoning have recently achieved human-level performance on mathematics competition problems in algebra, geometry and number theory. In comparison, combinatorics remains a challenging domain, characterized by a lack of appropriate benchmarks and theorem libraries. To address this gap, we introduce CombiBench, a comprehensive benchmark comprising 100 combinatorial problems, each formalized in Lean~4 and paired with its corresponding informal statement. The problem set covers a wide spectrum of difficulty levels, ranging from middle school to IMO and university level, and span over ten combinatorial topics. CombiBench is suitable for testing IMO solving capabilities since it includes all IMO combinatorial problems since 2000 (except IMO 2004 P3 as its statement contain an images). Furthermore, we provide a comprehensive and standardized evaluation framework, dubbed Fine-Eval (for Fill-in-the-blank in Lean Evaluation), for formal mathematics. It accommodates not only proof-based problems but also, for the first time, the evaluation of fill-in-the-blank questions. Using Fine-Eval as the evaluation method and Kimina Lean Server as the backend, we benchmark several LLMs on CombiBench and observe that their capabilities for formally solving combinatorial problems remain limited. Among all models tested (none of which has been trained for this particular task), Kimina-Prover attains the best results, solving 7 problems (out of 100) under both ``with solution'' and ``without solution'' scenarios. We open source the benchmark dataset alongside with the code of the proposed evaluation method at https://github.com/MoonshotAI/CombiBench/.

  • 15 authors
·
May 6, 2025

Order Theory in the Context of Machine Learning

The paper ``Tropical Geometry of Deep Neural Networks'' by L. Zhang et al. introduces an equivalence between integer-valued neural networks (IVNN) with ReLU_{t} and tropical rational functions, which come with a map to polytopes. Here, IVNN refers to a network with integer weights but real biases, and ReLU_{t} is defined as ReLU_{t}(x)=max(x,t) for tinRcup{-infty}. For every poset with n points, there exists a corresponding order polytope, i.e., a convex polytope in the unit cube [0,1]^n whose coordinates obey the inequalities of the poset. We study neural networks whose associated polytope is an order polytope. We then explain how posets with four points induce neural networks that can be interpreted as 2times 2 convolutional filters. These poset filters can be added to any neural network, not only IVNN. Similarly to maxout, poset pooling filters update the weights of the neural network during backpropagation with more precision than average pooling, max pooling, or mixed pooling, without the need to train extra parameters. We report experiments that support our statements. We also define the structure of algebra over the operad of posets on poset neural networks and tropical polynomials. This formalism allows us to study the composition of poset neural network arquitectures and the effect on their corresponding Newton polytopes, via the introduction of the generalization of two operations on polytopes: the Minkowski sum and the convex envelope.

  • 5 authors
·
Dec 8, 2024

Automated Search for Conjectures on Mathematical Constants using Analysis of Integer Sequences

Formulas involving fundamental mathematical constants had a great impact on various fields of science and mathematics, for example aiding in proofs of irrationality of constants. However, the discovery of such formulas has historically remained scarce, often perceived as an act of mathematical genius by great mathematicians such as Ramanujan, Euler, and Gauss. Recent efforts to automate the discovery of formulas for mathematical constants, such as the Ramanujan Machine project, relied on exhaustive search. Despite several successful discoveries, exhaustive search remains limited by the space of options that can be covered and by the need for vast amounts of computational resources. Here we propose a fundamentally different method to search for conjectures on mathematical constants: through analysis of integer sequences. We introduce the Enumerated Signed-continued-fraction Massey Approve (ESMA) algorithm, which builds on the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm to identify patterns in integer sequences that represent mathematical constants. The ESMA algorithm found various known formulas for e, e^2, tan(1), and ratios of values of Bessel functions. The algorithm further discovered a large number of new conjectures for these constants, some providing simpler representations and some providing faster numerical convergence than the corresponding simple continued fractions. Along with the algorithm, we present mathematical tools for manipulating continued fractions. These connections enable us to characterize what space of constants can be found by ESMA and quantify its algorithmic advantage in certain scenarios. Altogether, this work continues in the development of augmenting mathematical intuition by computer algorithms, to help reveal mathematical structures and accelerate mathematical research.

  • 6 authors
·
Dec 13, 2022

PROSE: Predicting Operators and Symbolic Expressions using Multimodal Transformers

Approximating nonlinear differential equations using a neural network provides a robust and efficient tool for various scientific computing tasks, including real-time predictions, inverse problems, optimal controls, and surrogate modeling. Previous works have focused on embedding dynamical systems into networks through two approaches: learning a single solution operator (i.e., the mapping from input parametrized functions to solutions) or learning the governing system of equations (i.e., the constitutive model relative to the state variables). Both of these approaches yield different representations for the same underlying data or function. Additionally, observing that families of differential equations often share key characteristics, we seek one network representation across a wide range of equations. Our method, called Predicting Operators and Symbolic Expressions (PROSE), learns maps from multimodal inputs to multimodal outputs, capable of generating both numerical predictions and mathematical equations. By using a transformer structure and a feature fusion approach, our network can simultaneously embed sets of solution operators for various parametric differential equations using a single trained network. Detailed experiments demonstrate that the network benefits from its multimodal nature, resulting in improved prediction accuracy and better generalization. The network is shown to be able to handle noise in the data and errors in the symbolic representation, including noisy numerical values, model misspecification, and erroneous addition or deletion of terms. PROSE provides a new neural network framework for differential equations which allows for more flexibility and generality in learning operators and governing equations from data.

  • 3 authors
·
Sep 28, 2023

Evaluating Language Models for Mathematics through Interactions

The standard methodology of evaluating large language models (LLMs) based on static pairs of inputs and outputs is insufficient for developing assistants: this kind of assessments fails to take into account the essential interactive element in their deployment, and therefore limits how we understand language model capabilities. We introduce CheckMate, an adaptable prototype platform for humans to interact with and evaluate LLMs. We conduct a study with CheckMate to evaluate three language models~(InstructGPT, ChatGPT, and GPT-4) as assistants in proving undergraduate-level mathematics, with a mixed cohort of participants from undergraduate students to professors of mathematics. We release the resulting interaction and rating dataset, MathConverse. By analysing MathConverse, we derive a preliminary taxonomy of human behaviours and uncover that despite a generally positive correlation, there are notable instances of divergence between correctness and perceived helpfulness in LLM generations, amongst other findings. Further, we identify useful scenarios and existing issues of GPT-4 in mathematical reasoning through a series of case studies contributed by expert mathematicians. We conclude with actionable takeaways for ML practitioners and mathematicians: models which communicate uncertainty, respond well to user corrections, are more interpretable and concise may constitute better assistants; interactive evaluation is a promising way to continually navigate the capability of these models; humans should be aware of language models' algebraic fallibility, and for that reason discern where they should be used.

  • 14 authors
·
Jun 2, 2023

A Deep Conjugate Direction Method for Iteratively Solving Linear Systems

We present a novel deep learning approach to approximate the solution of large, sparse, symmetric, positive-definite linear systems of equations. These systems arise from many problems in applied science, e.g., in numerical methods for partial differential equations. Algorithms for approximating the solution to these systems are often the bottleneck in problems that require their solution, particularly for modern applications that require many millions of unknowns. Indeed, numerical linear algebra techniques have been investigated for many decades to alleviate this computational burden. Recently, data-driven techniques have also shown promise for these problems. Motivated by the conjugate gradients algorithm that iteratively selects search directions for minimizing the matrix norm of the approximation error, we design an approach that utilizes a deep neural network to accelerate convergence via data-driven improvement of the search directions. Our method leverages a carefully chosen convolutional network to approximate the action of the inverse of the linear operator up to an arbitrary constant. We train the network using unsupervised learning with a loss function equal to the L^2 difference between an input and the system matrix times the network evaluation, where the unspecified constant in the approximate inverse is accounted for. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach on spatially discretized Poisson equations with millions of degrees of freedom arising in computational fluid dynamics applications. Unlike state-of-the-art learning approaches, our algorithm is capable of reducing the linear system residual to a given tolerance in a small number of iterations, independent of the problem size. Moreover, our method generalizes effectively to various systems beyond those encountered during training.

  • 6 authors
·
May 22, 2022

A Benchmark for Math Misconceptions: Bridging Gaps in Middle School Algebra with AI-Supported Instruction

This study introduces an evaluation benchmark for middle school algebra to be used in artificial intelligence(AI) based educational platforms. The goal is to support the design of AI systems that can enhance learner conceptual understanding of algebra by taking into account their current level of algebra comprehension. The data set comprises 55 misconceptions about algebra, common errors, and 220 diagnostic examples identified in previous peer-reviewed studies. We provide an example application using a large language model, observing a range of precision and recall scores depending on the topic and experimental setup that reaches 83.9% when including educator feedback and restricting it by topic. We found that topics such as ratios and proportions prove as difficult for LLMs as they are for students. We included a human assessment of LLMs results and feedback from five middle school math educators on the clarity and occurrence of misconceptions in the dataset and the potential use of AI in conjunction with the dataset. Most educators (80% or more) indicated that they encounter these misconceptions among their students, suggesting the relevance of the data set to teaching middle school algebra. Despite varying familiarity with AI tools, four out of five educators expressed interest in using the data set with AI to diagnose student misconceptions or train teachers. The results emphasize the importance of topic-constrained testing, the need for multimodal approaches, and the relevance of human expertise to gain practical insights when using AI for human learning.

  • 3 authors
·
Dec 4, 2024

Automated Formalization via Conceptual Retrieval-Augmented LLMs

Interactive theorem provers (ITPs) require manual formalization, which is labor-intensive and demands expert knowledge. While automated formalization offers a potential solution, it faces two major challenges: model hallucination (e.g., undefined predicates, symbol misuse, and version incompatibility) and the semantic gap caused by ambiguous or missing premises in natural language descriptions. To address these issues, we propose CRAMF, a Concept-driven Retrieval-Augmented Mathematical Formalization framework. CRAMF enhances LLM-based autoformalization by retrieving formal definitions of core mathematical concepts, providing contextual grounding during code generation. However, applying retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) in this setting is non-trivial due to the lack of structured knowledge bases, the polymorphic nature of mathematical concepts, and the high precision required in formal retrieval. We introduce a framework for automatically constructing a concept-definition knowledge base from Mathlib4, the standard mathematical library for the Lean 4 theorem prover, indexing over 26,000 formal definitions and 1,000+ core mathematical concepts. To address conceptual polymorphism, we propose contextual query augmentation with domain- and application-level signals. In addition, we design a dual-channel hybrid retrieval strategy with reranking to ensure accurate and relevant definition retrieval. Experiments on miniF2F, ProofNet, and our newly proposed AdvancedMath benchmark show that CRAMF can be seamlessly integrated into LLM-based autoformalizers, yielding consistent improvements in translation accuracy, achieving up to 62.1% and an average of 29.9% relative improvement.

  • 9 authors
·
Aug 9, 2025

MathCoder2: Better Math Reasoning from Continued Pretraining on Model-translated Mathematical Code

Code has been shown to be effective in enhancing the mathematical reasoning abilities of large language models due to its precision and accuracy. Previous works involving continued mathematical pretraining often include code that utilizes math-related packages, which are primarily designed for fields such as engineering, machine learning, signal processing, or module testing, rather than being directly focused on mathematical reasoning. In this paper, we introduce a novel method for generating mathematical code accompanied with corresponding reasoning steps for continued pretraining. Our approach begins with the construction of a high-quality mathematical continued pretraining dataset by incorporating math-related web data, code using mathematical packages, math textbooks, and synthetic data. Next, we construct reasoning steps by extracting LaTeX expressions, the conditions needed for the expressions, and the results of the expressions from the previously collected dataset. Based on this extracted information, we generate corresponding code to accurately capture the mathematical reasoning process. Appending the generated code to each reasoning step results in data consisting of paired natural language reasoning steps and their corresponding code. Combining this data with the original dataset results in a 19.2B-token high-performing mathematical pretraining corpus, which we name MathCode-Pile. Training several popular base models with this corpus significantly improves their mathematical abilities, leading to the creation of the MathCoder2 family of models. All of our data processing and training code is open-sourced, ensuring full transparency and easy reproducibility of the entire data collection and training pipeline. The code is released at https://github.com/mathllm/MathCoder2 .

  • 8 authors
·
Oct 10, 2024 2

Algorithm-assisted discovery of an intrinsic order among mathematical constants

In recent decades, a growing number of discoveries in fields of mathematics have been assisted by computer algorithms, primarily for exploring large parameter spaces that humans would take too long to investigate. As computers and algorithms become more powerful, an intriguing possibility arises - the interplay between human intuition and computer algorithms can lead to discoveries of novel mathematical concepts that would otherwise remain elusive. To realize this perspective, we have developed a massively parallel computer algorithm that discovers an unprecedented number of continued fraction formulas for fundamental mathematical constants. The sheer number of formulas discovered by the algorithm unveils a novel mathematical structure that we call the conservative matrix field. Such matrix fields (1) unify thousands of existing formulas, (2) generate infinitely many new formulas, and most importantly, (3) lead to unexpected relations between different mathematical constants, including multiple integer values of the Riemann zeta function. Conservative matrix fields also enable new mathematical proofs of irrationality. In particular, we can use them to generalize the celebrated proof by Ap\'ery for the irrationality of zeta(3). Utilizing thousands of personal computers worldwide, our computer-supported research strategy demonstrates the power of experimental mathematics, highlighting the prospects of large-scale computational approaches to tackle longstanding open problems and discover unexpected connections across diverse fields of science.

  • 9 authors
·
Aug 22, 2023

MATHSENSEI: A Tool-Augmented Large Language Model for Mathematical Reasoning

Tool-augmented Large Language Models (TALM) are known to enhance the skillset of large language models (LLM), thereby, leading to their improved reasoning abilities across many tasks. While, TALMs have been successfully employed in different question-answering benchmarks, their efficacy on complex mathematical reasoning benchmarks, and the potential complimentary benefits offered by tools for knowledge retrieval and mathematical equation solving, are open research questions. In this work, we present MATHSENSEI, a tool-augmented large language model for mathematical reasoning. Augmented with tools for knowledge retrieval (Bing Web Search), program execution (Python), and symbolic equation solving (Wolfram-Alpha), we study the complimentary benefits of these tools through evaluations on mathematical reasoning datasets. We perform exhaustive ablations on MATH,a popular dataset for evaluating mathematical reasoning on diverse mathematical disciplines. We also conduct experiments involving well-known tool planners to study the impact of tool sequencing on the model performance. MATHSENSEI achieves 13.5% better accuracy over gpt-3.5-turbo with chain-of-thought on the MATH dataset. We further observe that TALMs are not as effective for simpler math word problems (in GSM-8k), and the benefit increases as the complexity and required knowledge increases (progressively over AQuA, MMLU-Math, and higher level complex questions in MATH). The code and data are available at https://github.com/Debrup-61/MathSensei.

  • 4 authors
·
Feb 27, 2024

MathFimer: Enhancing Mathematical Reasoning by Expanding Reasoning Steps through Fill-in-the-Middle Task

Mathematical reasoning represents a critical frontier in advancing large language models (LLMs). While step-by-step approaches have emerged as the dominant paradigm for mathematical problem-solving in LLMs, the quality of reasoning steps in training data fundamentally constrains the performance of the models. Recent studies has demonstrated that more detailed intermediate steps can enhance model performance, yet existing methods for step expansion either require more powerful external models or incur substantial computational costs. In this paper, we introduce MathFimer, a novel framework for mathematical reasoning step expansion inspired by the "Fill-in-the-middle" task from code completion. By decomposing solution chains into prefix-suffix pairs and training models to reconstruct missing intermediate steps, we develop a specialized model, MathFimer-7B, on our carefully curated NuminaMath-FIM dataset. We then apply these models to enhance existing mathematical reasoning datasets by inserting detailed intermediate steps into their solution chains, creating MathFimer-expanded versions. Through comprehensive experiments on multiple mathematical reasoning datasets, including MathInstruct, MetaMathQA and etc., we demonstrate that models trained on MathFimer-expanded data consistently outperform their counterparts trained on original data across various benchmarks such as GSM8K and MATH. Our approach offers a practical, scalable solution for enhancing mathematical reasoning capabilities in LLMs without relying on powerful external models or expensive inference procedures.

  • 8 authors
·
Feb 17, 2025

Executable Functional Abstractions: Inferring Generative Programs for Advanced Math Problems

Scientists often infer abstract procedures from specific instances of problems and use the abstractions to generate new, related instances. For example, programs encoding the formal rules and properties of a system have been useful in fields ranging from RL (procedural environments) to physics (simulation engines). These programs can be seen as functions which execute to different outputs based on their parameterizations (e.g., gridworld configuration or initial physical conditions). We introduce the term EFA (Executable Functional Abstraction) to denote such programs for math problems. EFA-like constructs have been shown to be useful for math reasoning as problem generators for stress-testing models. However, prior work has been limited to abstractions for grade-school math (whose simple rules are easy to encode in programs), while generating EFAs for advanced math has thus far required human engineering. We explore the automatic construction of EFAs for advanced math problems. We operationalize the task of automatically constructing EFAs as a program synthesis task, and develop EFAGen, which conditions an LLM on a seed math problem and its step-by-step solution to generate candidate EFA programs that are faithful to the generalized problem and solution class underlying the seed problem. Furthermore, we formalize properties any valid EFA must possess in terms of executable unit tests, and show how the tests can be used as verifiable rewards to train LLMs to become better writers of EFAs. We demonstrate that EFAs constructed by EFAGen behave rationally by remaining faithful to seed problems, produce learnable problem variations, and that EFAGen can infer EFAs across multiple diverse sources of competition-level math problems. Finally, we show downstream uses of model-written EFAs e.g. finding problem variations that are harder or easier for a learner to solve, as well as data generation.

  • 5 authors
·
Apr 13, 2025 2

Can LLMs Master Math? Investigating Large Language Models on Math Stack Exchange

Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated exceptional capabilities in various natural language tasks, often achieving performances that surpass those of humans. Despite these advancements, the domain of mathematics presents a distinctive challenge, primarily due to its specialized structure and the precision it demands. In this study, we adopted a two-step approach for investigating the proficiency of LLMs in answering mathematical questions. First, we employ the most effective LLMs, as identified by their performance on math question-answer benchmarks, to generate answers to 78 questions from the Math Stack Exchange (MSE). Second, a case analysis is conducted on the LLM that showed the highest performance, focusing on the quality and accuracy of its answers through manual evaluation. We found that GPT-4 performs best (nDCG of 0.48 and P@10 of 0.37) amongst existing LLMs fine-tuned for answering mathematics questions and outperforms the current best approach on ArqMATH3 Task1, considering P@10. Our Case analysis indicates that while the GPT-4 can generate relevant responses in certain instances, it does not consistently answer all questions accurately. This paper explores the current limitations of LLMs in navigating complex mathematical problem-solving. Through case analysis, we shed light on the gaps in LLM capabilities within mathematics, thereby setting the stage for future research and advancements in AI-driven mathematical reasoning. We make our code and findings publicly available for research: https://github.com/gipplab/LLM-Investig-MathStackExchange

  • 7 authors
·
Mar 30, 2024

Towards Autonomous Mathematics Research

Recent advances in foundational models have yielded reasoning systems capable of achieving a gold-medal standard at the International Mathematical Olympiad. The transition from competition-level problem-solving to professional research, however, requires navigating vast literature and constructing long-horizon proofs. In this work, we introduce Aletheia, a math research agent that iteratively generates, verifies, and revises solutions end-to-end in natural language. Specifically, Aletheia is powered by an advanced version of Gemini Deep Think for challenging reasoning problems, a novel inference-time scaling law that extends beyond Olympiad-level problems, and intensive tool use to navigate the complexities of mathematical research. We demonstrate the capability of Aletheia from Olympiad problems to PhD-level exercises and most notably, through several distinct milestones in AI-assisted mathematics research: (a) a research paper (Feng26) generated by AI without any human intervention in calculating certain structure constants in arithmetic geometry called eigenweights; (b) a research paper (LeeSeo26) demonstrating human-AI collaboration in proving bounds on systems of interacting particles called independent sets; and (c) an extensive semi-autonomous evaluation (Feng et al., 2026a) of 700 open problems on Bloom's Erdos Conjectures database, including autonomous solutions to four open questions. In order to help the public better understand the developments pertaining to AI and mathematics, we suggest codifying standard levels quantifying autonomy and novelty of AI-assisted results. We conclude with reflections on human-AI collaboration in mathematics.

google Google
·
Feb 10 1

Evaluating and Improving Tool-Augmented Computation-Intensive Math Reasoning

Chain-of-thought prompting~(CoT) and tool augmentation have been validated in recent work as effective practices for improving large language models~(LLMs) to perform step-by-step reasoning on complex math-related tasks. However, most existing math reasoning datasets may be not able to fully evaluate and analyze the ability of LLMs in manipulating tools and performing reasoning, as they may only require very few invocations of tools or miss annotations for evaluating intermediate reasoning steps. To address the issue, we construct CARP, a new Chinese dataset consisting of 4,886 computation-intensive algebra problems with formulated annotations on intermediate steps. In CARP, we test four LLMs with CoT prompting, and find that they are all prone to make mistakes at the early steps of the solution, leading to wrong answers. Based on this finding, we propose a new approach that can deliberate the reasoning steps with tool interfaces, namely DELI. In DELI, we first initialize a step-by-step solution based on retrieved exemplars, then iterate two deliberation procedures that check and refine the intermediate steps of the generated solution, from the perspectives of tool manipulation and natural language reasoning, until obtaining converged solutions or reaching the maximum turn. Experimental results on CARP and six other datasets show that the proposed DELI mostly outperforms competitive baselines, and can further boost the performance of existing CoT methods. Our data and code are available in https://github.com/RUCAIBox/CARP.

  • 7 authors
·
Jun 4, 2023

MathBridge: A Large-Scale Dataset for Translating Mathematical Expressions into Formula Images

Understanding sentences that contain mathematical expressions in text form poses significant challenges. To address this, the importance of converting these expressions into formula images has been highlighted. For instance, the expression ``x equals minus b plus or minus the square root of b squared minus four a c, all over two a'' is more readily comprehensible when displayed as an image x = -b pm sqrt{b^2 - 4ac}{2a}. To develop a text-to-image conversion system, we can break down the process into text-to-LaTeX and LaTeX-to-image conversions, with the latter being managed with by existing various LaTeX engines. However, the former approach has been notably hindered by the severe scarcity of text-to-LaTeX paired data, presenting a significant challenge in the field.In this context, we introduce MathBridge, the first extensive dataset for translating mathematical spoken English into LaTeX, which aims to establish a robust baseline for future research in text-to-LaTeX translation. MathBridge comprises approximately 23 million LaTeX formulas paired with corresponding spoken English expressions. Through comprehensive evaluations, including fine-tuning and testing with data, we discovered that MathBridge significantly enhances pre-trained language models' capabilities for text-to-LaTeX translation. Specifically, for the T5-large model, the sacreBLEU score increased from 4.77 to 46.8, demonstrating substantial enhancement. Our findings indicate the necessity for a new metric specifically for text-to-LaTeX conversion evaluation.

  • 7 authors
·
Aug 7, 2024

Semantic Search over 9 Million Mathematical Theorems

Searching for mathematical results remains difficult: most existing tools retrieve entire papers, while mathematicians and theorem-proving agents often seek a specific theorem, lemma, or proposition that answers a query. While semantic search has seen rapid progress, its behavior on large, highly technical corpora such as research-level mathematical theorems remains poorly understood. In this work, we introduce and study semantic theorem retrieval at scale over a unified corpus of 9.2 million theorem statements extracted from arXiv and seven other sources, representing the largest publicly available corpus of human-authored, research-level theorems. We represent each theorem with a short natural-language description as a retrieval representation and systematically analyze how representation context, language model choice, embedding model, and prompting strategy affect retrieval quality. On a curated evaluation set of theorem-search queries written by professional mathematicians, our approach substantially improves both theorem-level and paper-level retrieval compared to existing baselines, demonstrating that semantic theorem search is feasible and effective at web scale. The theorem search tool is available at https://huggingface.co/spaces/uw-math-ai/theorem-search{this link}, and the dataset is available at https://huggingface.co/datasets/uw-math-ai/TheoremSearch{this link}.

Orthogonal Matrices for MBAT Vector Symbolic Architectures, and a "Soft" VSA Representation for JSON

Vector Symbolic Architectures (VSAs) give a way to represent a complex object as a single fixed-length vector, so that similar objects have similar vector representations. These vector representations then become easy to use for machine learning or nearest-neighbor search. We review a previously proposed VSA method, MBAT (Matrix Binding of Additive Terms), which uses multiplication by random matrices for binding related terms. However, multiplying by such matrices introduces instabilities which can harm performance. Making the random matrices be orthogonal matrices provably fixes this problem. With respect to larger scale applications, we see how to apply MBAT vector representations for any data expressed in JSON. JSON is used in numerous programming languages to express complex data, but its native format appears highly unsuited for machine learning. Expressing JSON as a fixed-length vector makes it readily usable for machine learning and nearest-neighbor search. Creating such JSON vectors also shows that a VSA needs to employ binding operations that are non-commutative. VSAs are now ready to try with full-scale practical applications, including healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and genomics. Keywords: MBAT (Matrix Binding of Additive Terms), VSA (Vector Symbolic Architecture), HDC (Hyperdimensional Computing), Distributed Representations, Binding, Orthogonal Matrices, Recurrent Connections, Machine Learning, Search, JSON, VSA Applications

  • 1 authors
·
Feb 8, 2022

Math Agents: Computational Infrastructure, Mathematical Embedding, and Genomics

The advancement in generative AI could be boosted with more accessible mathematics. Beyond human-AI chat, large language models (LLMs) are emerging in programming, algorithm discovery, and theorem proving, yet their genomics application is limited. This project introduces Math Agents and mathematical embedding as fresh entries to the "Moore's Law of Mathematics", using a GPT-based workflow to convert equations from literature into LaTeX and Python formats. While many digital equation representations exist, there's a lack of automated large-scale evaluation tools. LLMs are pivotal as linguistic user interfaces, providing natural language access for human-AI chat and formal languages for large-scale AI-assisted computational infrastructure. Given the infinite formal possibility spaces, Math Agents, which interact with math, could potentially shift us from "big data" to "big math". Math, unlike the more flexible natural language, has properties subject to proof, enabling its use beyond traditional applications like high-validation math-certified icons for AI alignment aims. This project aims to use Math Agents and mathematical embeddings to address the ageing issue in information systems biology by applying multiscalar physics mathematics to disease models and genomic data. Generative AI with episodic memory could help analyse causal relations in longitudinal health records, using SIR Precision Health models. Genomic data is suggested for addressing the unsolved Alzheimer's disease problem.

  • 4 authors
·
Jul 4, 2023

Enumerate-Conjecture-Prove: Formally Solving Answer-Construction Problems in Math Competitions

Mathematical reasoning lies at the heart of artificial intelligence, underpinning applications in education, program verification, and research-level mathematical discovery. Mathematical competitions, in particular, present two challenging problem types: theorem proving, which requires rigorous proofs of stated conclusions, and answer construction, which involves hypothesizing and formally verifying mathematical objects. Large Language Models (LLMs) effectively generate creative candidate answers but struggle with formal verification, while symbolic provers ensure rigor but cannot efficiently handle creative conjecture generation. We introduce the Enumerate-Conjecture-Prove (ECP) framework, a modular neuro-symbolic method integrating LLM-based enumeration and pattern-driven conjecturing with formal theorem proving. We present ConstructiveBench, a dataset of 3,431 answer-construction problems in various math competitions with verified Lean formalizations. On the ConstructiveBench dataset, ECP improves the accuracy of answer construction from a Chain-of-Thought (CoT) baseline of 14.54% to 45.06% with the gpt-4.1-mini model. Moreover, combined with ECP's constructed answers, the state-of-the-art DeepSeek-Prover-V2-7B model generates correct proofs for 858 of the 3,431 constructive problems in Lean, achieving 25.01% accuracy compared to 9.86% for symbolic-only baselines. Our code and dataset are publicly available at https://github.com/JackSun200312/ECP.

  • 5 authors
·
May 23, 2025

Equivariant Polynomials for Graph Neural Networks

Graph Neural Networks (GNN) are inherently limited in their expressive power. Recent seminal works (Xu et al., 2019; Morris et al., 2019b) introduced the Weisfeiler-Lehman (WL) hierarchy as a measure of expressive power. Although this hierarchy has propelled significant advances in GNN analysis and architecture developments, it suffers from several significant limitations. These include a complex definition that lacks direct guidance for model improvement and a WL hierarchy that is too coarse to study current GNNs. This paper introduces an alternative expressive power hierarchy based on the ability of GNNs to calculate equivariant polynomials of a certain degree. As a first step, we provide a full characterization of all equivariant graph polynomials by introducing a concrete basis, significantly generalizing previous results. Each basis element corresponds to a specific multi-graph, and its computation over some graph data input corresponds to a tensor contraction problem. Second, we propose algorithmic tools for evaluating the expressiveness of GNNs using tensor contraction sequences, and calculate the expressive power of popular GNNs. Finally, we enhance the expressivity of common GNN architectures by adding polynomial features or additional operations / aggregations inspired by our theory. These enhanced GNNs demonstrate state-of-the-art results in experiments across multiple graph learning benchmarks.

  • 5 authors
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Feb 22, 2023