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Main Authors: Wan, Zhongwei, Shen, Yun, Dou, Zhihao, Zhou, Donghao, Zhang, Yu, Wang, Xin, Shen, Hui, Xiong, Jing, Tao, Chaofan, Zhong, Zixuan, Huang, Peizhou, Zhang, Mi
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.19895
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author Wan, Zhongwei
Shen, Yun
Dou, Zhihao
Zhou, Donghao
Zhang, Yu
Wang, Xin
Shen, Hui
Xiong, Jing
Tao, Chaofan
Zhong, Zixuan
Huang, Peizhou
Zhang, Mi
author_facet Wan, Zhongwei
Shen, Yun
Dou, Zhihao
Zhou, Donghao
Zhang, Yu
Wang, Xin
Shen, Hui
Xiong, Jing
Tao, Chaofan
Zhong, Zixuan
Huang, Peizhou
Zhang, Mi
contents Reinforcement learning with verifiers (RLVR) is a central paradigm for improving large language model (LLM) reasoning, yet existing methods often suffer from limited exploration. Policies tend to collapse onto a few reasoning patterns and prematurely stop deep exploration, while conventional entropy regularization introduces only local stochasticity and fails to induce meaningful path-level diversity, leading to weak and unstable learning signals in group-based policy optimization. We propose DSDR, a Dual-Scale Diversity Regularization reinforcement learning framework that decomposes diversity in LLM reasoning into global and coupling components. Globally, DSDR promotes diversity among correct reasoning trajectories to explore distinct solution modes. Locally, it applies a length-invariant, token-level entropy regularization restricted to correct trajectories, preventing entropy collapse within each mode while preserving correctness. The two scales are coupled through a global-to-local allocation mechanism that emphasizes local regularization for more distinctive correct trajectories. We provide theoretical support showing that DSDR preserves optimal correctness under bounded regularization, sustains informative learning signals in group-based optimization, and yields a principled global-to-local coupling rule. Experiments on multiple reasoning benchmarks demonstrate consistent improvements in accuracy and pass@k, highlighting the importance of dual-scale diversity for deep exploration in RLVR. Code is available at https://github.com/SUSTechBruce/DSDR.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_19895
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle DSDR: Dual-Scale Diversity Regularization for Exploration in LLM Reasoning
Wan, Zhongwei
Shen, Yun
Dou, Zhihao
Zhou, Donghao
Zhang, Yu
Wang, Xin
Shen, Hui
Xiong, Jing
Tao, Chaofan
Zhong, Zixuan
Huang, Peizhou
Zhang, Mi
Machine Learning
Computation and Language
Reinforcement learning with verifiers (RLVR) is a central paradigm for improving large language model (LLM) reasoning, yet existing methods often suffer from limited exploration. Policies tend to collapse onto a few reasoning patterns and prematurely stop deep exploration, while conventional entropy regularization introduces only local stochasticity and fails to induce meaningful path-level diversity, leading to weak and unstable learning signals in group-based policy optimization. We propose DSDR, a Dual-Scale Diversity Regularization reinforcement learning framework that decomposes diversity in LLM reasoning into global and coupling components. Globally, DSDR promotes diversity among correct reasoning trajectories to explore distinct solution modes. Locally, it applies a length-invariant, token-level entropy regularization restricted to correct trajectories, preventing entropy collapse within each mode while preserving correctness. The two scales are coupled through a global-to-local allocation mechanism that emphasizes local regularization for more distinctive correct trajectories. We provide theoretical support showing that DSDR preserves optimal correctness under bounded regularization, sustains informative learning signals in group-based optimization, and yields a principled global-to-local coupling rule. Experiments on multiple reasoning benchmarks demonstrate consistent improvements in accuracy and pass@k, highlighting the importance of dual-scale diversity for deep exploration in RLVR. Code is available at https://github.com/SUSTechBruce/DSDR.
title DSDR: Dual-Scale Diversity Regularization for Exploration in LLM Reasoning
topic Machine Learning
Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.19895