# ReFusion: A Diffusion Large Language Model with Parallel Autoregressive Decoding

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.13586 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.13586/

## Key facts

- Cited by 18 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Discrete and text diffusion, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 42 of its 46 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 15 Dec 2025.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [Discrete and text diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/discrete-and-text-diffusion/)
- Efficient LLM inference and serving / [Diffusion LLM and MoE inference](https://mlsanity.com/inference/diffusion-llm-and-moe-inference/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 42)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.04805/) (2018)
- [The Llama 3 Herd of Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.21783/) (2024)
- [Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11903/) (2022)
- [Training Verifiers to Solve Math Word Problems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.14168/) (2021)
- [Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.03374/) (2021)
- [Measuring Mathematical Problem Solving With the MATH Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.03874/) (2021)
- [Think you have Solved Question Answering? Try ARC, the AI2 Reasoning Challenge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.05457/) (2018)
- [RoFormer: Enhanced Transformer with Rotary Position Embedding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.09864/) (2021)
- [Let's Verify Step by Step](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.20050/) (2023)
- [Program Synthesis with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.07732/) (2021)
- [GPQA: A Graduate-Level Google-Proof Q&A Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12022/) (2023)
- [FlashAttention-2: Faster Attention with Better Parallelism and Work Partitioning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.08691/) (2023)
- [MMLU-Pro: A More Robust and Challenging Multi-Task Language Understanding Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.01574/) (2024)
- [Fast Inference from Transformers via Speculative Decoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.17192/) (2022)
- [ZeRO: Memory Optimizations Toward Training Trillion Parameter Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.02054/) (2019)
- [Accelerating Large Language Model Decoding with Speculative Sampling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.01318/) (2023)
- [Large Language Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.09992/) (2025)
- [Medusa: Simple LLM Inference Acceleration Framework with Multiple Decoding Heads](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.10774/) (2024)
- [Dream 7B: Diffusion Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.15487/) (2025)
- [MAmmoTH: Building Math Generalist Models through Hybrid Instruction Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.05653/) (2023)
- [Fast-dLLM: Training-free Acceleration of Diffusion LLM by Enabling KV Cache and Parallel Decoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.22618/) (2025)
- [Block Diffusion: Interpolating Between Autoregressive and Diffusion Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.09573/) (2025)
- [Scaling Diffusion Language Models via Adaptation from Autoregressive Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.17891/) (2024)
- [Train for the Worst, Plan for the Best: Understanding Token Ordering in Masked Diffusions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.06768/) (2025)
- [OpenMathInstruct-2: Accelerating AI for Math with Massive Open-Source Instruction Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.01560/) (2024)
- [dLLM-Cache: Accelerating Diffusion Large Language Models with Adaptive Caching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.06295/) (2025)
- [Accelerated Sampling from Masked Diffusion Models via Entropy Bounded Unmasking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.24857/) (2025)
- [OpenCoder: The Open Cookbook for Top-Tier Code Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.04905/) (2024)
- [Diffusion LLMs Can Do Faster-Than-AR Inference via Discrete Diffusion Forcing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.09192/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 18 of 18)

- [d3LLM: Ultra-Fast Diffusion LLM using Pseudo-Trajectory Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.07568/) (2026)
- [CORE: Context-Robust Remasking for Diffusion Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.04096/) (2026)
- [TEAM: Temporal-Spatial Consistency Guided Expert Activation for MoE Diffusion Language Model Acceleration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.08404/) (2026)
- [S2D2: Fast Decoding for Diffusion LLMs via Training-Free Self-Speculation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.25702/) (2026)
- [Pythagoras-Prover: Advancing Efficient Formal Proving via Augmented Lean Formalisation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.12594/) (2026)
- [AdaFlash: Adaptive Speculative Decoding via On-Policy Distilled Diffusion Drafters](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.19223/) (2026)
- [Plan, Verify and Fill: A Structured Parallel Decoding Approach for Diffusion Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.12247/) (2026)
- [DOS: Dependency-Oriented Sampler for Masked Diffusion Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.15340/) (2026)
- [Can I Have Your Order? Monte-Carlo Tree Search for Slot Filling Ordering in Diffusion Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.12586/) (2026)
- [Accelerating Masked Diffusion Large Language Models: A Survey of Efficient Inference Techniques](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.12829/) (2026)
- [From Interface to Inference: Eliciting Any-Order Inference from Any-Order Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.26504/) (2026)
- [LLaDA MoE v2: Scaling Mixture-of-Experts Diffusion Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.03457/) (2026)
- [LEAP: Unlocking dLLM Parallelism via Lookahead Early-Convergence Token Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.10980/) (2026)
- [Bifocal Diffusion Language Models: Asymmetric Bidirectional Context for Parallel Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.27732/) (2026)
- [Zarya: A Hybrid Autoregressive--Masked Diffusion Language Model with Flexible Training and Dual-Mode Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.19868/) (2026)
- [d-OPD: Future-Aware On-Policy Distillation for Block Diffusion Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.35362/) (2026)
- [Denoising Surface: Modeling and Predicting Inference Cost for Diffusion LLM Serving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.00499/) (2026)
- [Plan Canvas: Fixed Reasoning Regions for Continuous Language Flows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.05815/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Autoregressive models (ARMs) are hindered by slow sequential inference. While masked diffusion models (MDMs) offer a parallel alternative, they suffer from critical drawbacks: high computational overhead from precluding Key-Value (KV) caching, and incoherent generation arising from learning dependencies over an intractable space of token combinations. To address these limitations, we introduce textscReFusion, a novel masked diffusion model that integrates sequence reorganization into the causal attention framework. By elevating parallel decoding from the token level to a higher slot level, textscReFusion interleaves inter-slot diffusion-based selection with intra-slot autoregressive infilling, while reordering newly generated slots ahead of the remaining masks after each iteration. Consequently, this design simultaneously unlocks full KV cache reuse and reduces learning complexity from an intractable token combination space to a manageable slot-level permutation space. Extensive experiments on seven diverse benchmarks show that textscReFusion not only overwhelmingly surpasses prior MDMs with a 34% performance gain and an over 18× speedup on average, but also bridges the performance gap to strong ARMs while maintaining a 2.33× average speedup.