Where Do LLM Ensemble Gains Come From? Decomposing Candidate Value, Diversity, and Aggregation
LLM ensemble gains are often measured against a single baseline, but the value attributed to additional candidates can change with the comparison used. We study an LLM aggregator under four matched conditions: Direct (no candidates), Single-slot (one candidate in a multi-slot interface), Duplicate (one candidate repeated), and Multi-candidate (separately generated candidates). Under either non-diverse control, overall candidate gain (CIV) splits algebraically into an additional-candidate contrast (DSV) and a candidate-context contrast (CCV); the split, but not CIV, depends on the chosen control. On MultiHopRAG model diversity (k=2), the repetition gap Rep=-8.33 pp [-13.25, -3.75] quantifi...
| Authors | Donghwan Kim |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.CL |
| Published | 13 October 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 13 October 2026 |
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