# Universe of Thoughts: Enabling Creative Reasoning with Large Language Models

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.20471 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.20471/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Reasoning benchmarks and evaluation, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning.
- Builds on 27 of its 47 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 25 Nov 2025.

## Placed in

- LLM reasoning / [Reasoning benchmarks and evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/lr/reasoning-benchmarks-and-evaluation/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 27 of 27)

- [GPT-4 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08774/) (2023)
- [Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11903/) (2022)
- [PaLM: Scaling Language Modeling with Pathways](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.02311/) (2022)
- [Tree of Thoughts: Deliberate Problem Solving with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.10601/) (2023)
- [The AI Scientist: Towards Fully Automated Open-Ended Scientific Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.06292/) (2024)
- [Graph of Thoughts: Solving Elaborate Problems with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.09687/) (2023)
- [AlphaEvolve: A coding agent for scientific and algorithmic discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.13131/) (2025)
- [Language Agent Tree Search Unifies Reasoning Acting and Planning in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.04406/) (2023)
- [Hypothesis Search: Inductive Reasoning with Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.05660/) (2023)
- [Self-Discover: Large Language Models Self-Compose Reasoning Structures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.03620/) (2024)
- [Large Language Models as Analogical Reasoners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.01714/) (2023)
- [MOOSE-Chem: Large Language Models for Rediscovering Unseen Chemistry Scientific Hypotheses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.07076/) (2024)
- [ResearchBench: Benchmarking LLMs in Scientific Discovery via Inspiration-Based Task Decomposition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.21248/) (2025)
- [AI Idea Bench 2025: AI Research Idea Generation Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.14191/) (2025)
- [Thought Propagation: An Analogical Approach to Complex Reasoning with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.03965/) (2023)
- [HypoBench: Towards Systematic and Principled Benchmarking for Hypothesis Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.11524/) (2025)
- [NewtonBench: Benchmarking Generalizable Scientific Law Discovery in LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.07172/) (2025)
- [MacGyver: Are Large Language Models Creative Problem Solvers?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.09682/) (2023)
- [Inductive or Deductive? Rethinking the Fundamental Reasoning Abilities of LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.00114/) (2024)
- [Evaluating LLMs' Divergent Thinking Capabilities for Scientific Idea Generation with Minimal Context](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.17596/) (2024)
- [Automated Creativity Evaluation for Large Language Models: A Reference-Based Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.15784/) (2025)
- [InnovatorBench: Evaluating Agents' Ability to Conduct Innovative LLM Research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.27598/) (2025)
- [LLMs can Realize Combinatorial Creativity: Generating Creative Ideas via LLMs for Scientific Research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.14141/) (2024)
- [Measuring Combinatorial Creativity in Large Language Models and Humans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.21043/) (2025)
- [HypoSpace: A Diagnostic Benchmark for Set-Valued Hypothesis Generation under Underdetermination and Sublinear Coverage Bounds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.15614/) (2025)
- [CreativityPrism: A Cross-Domain Evaluation Framework for Large Language Model Creativity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.20091/) (2025)
- [Transforming Business with Generative AI: Research, Innovation, Market Deployment and Future Shifts in Business Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.14437/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recent advances in Large Language Model (LLM) reasoning have improved conventional problem solving, but creative reasoning remains comparatively underexplored. Inspired by cognitive science, we formalize combinational, exploratory, and transformational creativity as executable computational operators over structured problem and solution spaces, specifying how each mode combines, explores, or transforms those spaces. Combinational reasoning transfers ideas across domains to form unfamiliar combinations; exploratory reasoning searches for new solutions within an existing conceptual space; and transformational reasoning modifies the rules or constraints that define that space. This formalization yields distinct algorithmic procedures, which we instantiate in Universe of Thoughts (UoT), an LLM reasoning framework. Existing creativity benchmarks emphasize either open-ended ideation or highly constrained problem solving. We therefore introduce three novel creative-reasoning tasks requiring concrete solutions in low-constraint settings. Across 10 generations per method and task, T-UoT with GPT-4o performs strongest on the low-constraint, high-objective-specificity Bridge and Electricity tasks, while C-UoT shows its strongest relative performance on the low-constraint, lower-objective-specificity Society task. In addition, we evaluate UoT on HypoArena, an independent scientific hypothesis-generation benchmark with 100 tasks across biomedical, machine-learning, and social-science domains. With Qwen3-14B, Exploratory UoT ranks first among seven reasoning methods, achieving a 32.7% pairwise win rate compared with 25.5% for the next-best method. Our results suggest distinct performance patterns across task structures: T-UoT is strongest in low-constraint, high-specificity settings, E-UoT in more constrained, high-specificity settings, and C-UoT in low-constraint, lower-specificity settings.