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Main Authors: Gao, Zhitao, Ma, Jie, Li, Xuhong, Li, Pengyu, Qu, Ning, Wu, Yaqiang, Liu, Hui, Liu, Jun
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.03084
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author Gao, Zhitao
Ma, Jie
Li, Xuhong
Li, Pengyu
Qu, Ning
Wu, Yaqiang
Liu, Hui
Liu, Jun
author_facet Gao, Zhitao
Ma, Jie
Li, Xuhong
Li, Pengyu
Qu, Ning
Wu, Yaqiang
Liu, Hui
Liu, Jun
contents Large Language Models (LLMs) have achieved significant success in complex reasoning but remain bottlenecked by reliance on expert-annotated data and external verifiers. While existing self-evolution paradigms aim to bypass these constraints, they often fail to identify the optimal learning zone and risk reinforcing collective hallucinations and incorrect priors through flawed internal feedback. To address these challenges, we propose \underline{A}utonomous \underline{E}volutionary \underline{R}easoning \underline{O}ptimization (AERO), an unsupervised framework that achieves autonomous reasoning evolution by internalizing self-questioning, answering, and criticism within a synergistic dual-loop system. Inspired by the \textit{Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)} theory, AERO utilizes entropy-based positioning to target the ``solvability gap'' and employs Independent Counterfactual Correction for robust verification. Furthermore, we introduce a Staggered Training Strategy to synchronize capability growth across functional roles and prevent curriculum collapse. Extensive evaluations across nine benchmarks spanning three domains demonstrate that AERO achieves average performance improvements of 4.57\% on Qwen3-4B-Base and 5.10\% on Qwen3-8B-Base, outperforming competitive baselines. Code is available at https://github.com/mira-ai-lab/AERO.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_03084
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle AERO: Autonomous Evolutionary Reasoning Optimization via Endogenous Dual-Loop Feedback
Gao, Zhitao
Ma, Jie
Li, Xuhong
Li, Pengyu
Qu, Ning
Wu, Yaqiang
Liu, Hui
Liu, Jun
Computation and Language
Large Language Models (LLMs) have achieved significant success in complex reasoning but remain bottlenecked by reliance on expert-annotated data and external verifiers. While existing self-evolution paradigms aim to bypass these constraints, they often fail to identify the optimal learning zone and risk reinforcing collective hallucinations and incorrect priors through flawed internal feedback. To address these challenges, we propose \underline{A}utonomous \underline{E}volutionary \underline{R}easoning \underline{O}ptimization (AERO), an unsupervised framework that achieves autonomous reasoning evolution by internalizing self-questioning, answering, and criticism within a synergistic dual-loop system. Inspired by the \textit{Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)} theory, AERO utilizes entropy-based positioning to target the ``solvability gap'' and employs Independent Counterfactual Correction for robust verification. Furthermore, we introduce a Staggered Training Strategy to synchronize capability growth across functional roles and prevent curriculum collapse. Extensive evaluations across nine benchmarks spanning three domains demonstrate that AERO achieves average performance improvements of 4.57\% on Qwen3-4B-Base and 5.10\% on Qwen3-8B-Base, outperforming competitive baselines. Code is available at https://github.com/mira-ai-lab/AERO.
title AERO: Autonomous Evolutionary Reasoning Optimization via Endogenous Dual-Loop Feedback
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.03084