Efficient Reinforcement Learning with Semantic and Token Entropy for LLM Reasoning
On the map: LLM reasoning → Reinforcement learning for reasoning
Abstract (arXiv)
Reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards (RLVR) has demonstrated superior performance in enhancing the reasoning capability of large language models (LLMs). However, this accuracy-oriented learning paradigm often suffers from entropy collapse, which reduces policy exploration and limits reasoning capabilities. To address this challenge, we propose an efficient reinforcement learning framework that leverages entropy signals at both the semantic and token levels to improve reasoning. From the data perspective, we introduce semantic entropy-guided curriculum learning, organizing training data from low to high semantic entropy to guide progressive optimization from easier to more challenging tasks. For the algorithmic design, we adopt non-uniform token treatment by imposing KL regularization on low-entropy tokens that critically impact policy exploration and applying stronger constraints on high-covariance portions within these tokens. By jointly optimizing data organization and algorithmic design, our method effectively mitigates entropy collapse and enhances LLM reasoning. Experimental results across 6 benchmarks with 3 different parameter-scale base models demonstrate that our method outperforms other entropy-based approaches in improving reasoning.
Key facts. Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Reinforcement learning for reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 35 of its 47 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 4 Dec 2025.
Builds on
35 of 47 references.
Closest ancestors · 12
Same direction, newest first
- 2025Reasoning with Exploration: An Entropy Perspective17 Jun
- 2025Beyond the 80/20 Rule: High-Entropy Minority Tokens Drive Effective Reinforcement Learning for LLM Reasoning2 Jun
- 2025The Entropy Mechanism of Reinforcement Learning for Reasoning Language Models28 May
- 2025Pangu Embedded: An Efficient Dual-system LLM Reasoner with Metacognition28 May
- 2025Enhancing Efficiency and Exploration in Reinforcement Learning for LLMs24 May
- 2025VAPO: Efficient and Reliable Reinforcement Learning for Advanced Reasoning Tasks7 Apr
- 2025DAPO: An Open-Source LLM Reinforcement Learning System at Scale18 Mar
- 2025DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learning22 Jan
- 2024Tulu 3: Pushing Frontiers in Open Language Model Post-Training22 Nov
- 2023Let's Verify Step by Step31 May
- 2022Constitutional AI: Harmlessness from AI Feedback15 Dec
- 2017Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithms20 Jul
Other references · 23
- 2022Training language models to follow instructions with human feedbackcited by 15,712
- 2024DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Modelscited by 8,851
- 2025Qwen3 Technical Reportcited by 8,195
- 2021Measuring Mathematical Problem Solving With the MATH Datasetcited by 5,203
- 2018Soft Actor-Critic: Off-Policy Maximum Entropy Deep Reinforcement Learning with a Stochastic Actorcited by 4,635
- 2024HybridFlow: A Flexible and Efficient RLHF Frameworkcited by 1,980
- 2024LiveCodeBench: Holistic and Contamination Free Evaluation of Large Language Models for Codecited by 1,906
- 2022Solving Quantitative Reasoning Problems with Language Modelscited by 1,359
- 2024OlympiadBench: A Challenging Benchmark for Promoting AGI with Olympiad-Level Bilingual Multimodal Scientific Problemscited by 1,099
- 2023Semantic Uncertainty: Linguistic Invariances for Uncertainty Estimation in Natural Language Generationcited by 795
- 2025Group Sequence Policy Optimizationcited by 788
- 2018Diversity is All You Need: Learning Skills without a Reward Functioncited by 734
11 more
- 2025Hi Robot: Open-Ended Instruction Following with Hierarchical Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 216
- 2021Maximum Entropy RL (Provably) Solves Some Robust RL Problemscited by 169
- 2024Survey on Large Language Model-Enhanced Reinforcement Learning: Concept, Taxonomy, and Methodscited by 114
- 2024NavCoT: Boosting LLM-Based Vision-and-Language Navigation via Learning Disentangled Reasoningcited by 77
- 2024Demystifying Chains, Trees, and Graphs of Thoughtscited by 63
- 2024Maximum Entropy Reinforcement Learning via Energy-Based Normalizing Flowcited by 25
- 2024S2AC: Energy-Based Reinforcement Learning with Stein Soft Actor Criticcited by 18
- 2024ACE : Off-Policy Actor-Critic with Causality-Aware Entropy Regularizationcited by 16
- 2024Correctable Landmark Discovery via Large Models for Vision-Language Navigationcited by 16
- 2025Entropy-guided sequence weighting for efficient exploration in RL-based LLM fine-tuningcited by 13
- 2023Maximum diffusion reinforcement learningcited by 8
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 6.
6 papers.
- 2026VI-CuRL: Stabilizing Verifier-Independent RL Reasoning via Confidence-Guided Variance Reductioncited by 9
- 2026Offline Exploration-Aware Fine-Tuning for Long-Chain Mathematical Reasoningcited by 2
- 2026Tool-Aware Optimization with Entropy Guidance for Efficient Agentic Reinforcement Learningcited by 1
- 2026Beyond Entropy: Learning from Token-Level Distributional Deviations for LLM Reasoningcited by 1
- 2026UP: Unbounded Positive Asymmetric Optimization for Breaking the Exploration-Stability Dilemmacited by 0
- 2026Learning from Hard Prompts: Difficulty-aware Advantage Amplification in Dynamic Samplingcited by 0
- 2026Learning from Hard Prompts: Difficulty-aware Advantage Amplification in Dynamic Sampling28 Aug 2026
- 2026UP: Unbounded Positive Asymmetric Optimization for Breaking the Exploration-Stability Dilemma8 Jul 2026
- 2026Beyond Entropy: Learning from Token-Level Distributional Deviations for LLM Reasoning18 Jun 2026
- 2026Tool-Aware Optimization with Entropy Guidance for Efficient Agentic Reinforcement Learning2 Jun 2026
- 2026Offline Exploration-Aware Fine-Tuning for Long-Chain Mathematical Reasoning17 Mar 2026
- 2026VI-CuRL: Stabilizing Verifier-Independent RL Reasoning via Confidence-Guided Variance Reduction13 Feb 2026
Similar, not cited
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- 2026GMTS: Gradient Magnitude-based Token Selection Improves RLVR Training for LLM Reasoning
- 2025Beyond High-Entropy Exploration: Correctness-Aware Low-Entropy Segment-Based Advantage Shaping for Reasoning LLMs
- 2025Stabilizing Knowledge, Promoting Reasoning: Dual-Token Constraints for RLVR
- 2026PAEC: Position-Aware Entropy Calibration for LLM Reasoning in RLVR
- 2025Rethinking Entropy Interventions in RLVR: An Entropy Change Perspective
- 2025Not All Tokens Matter: Towards Efficient LLM Reasoning via Token Significance in Reinforcement Learning
- 2026Addressing Performance Saturation for LLM RL via Precise Entropy Curve Control