MaxSim Unifies Sparse Retrieval and Logical Operations

umass · hf · 2026-07-08

A UMass research team theoretically proved that the MaxSim similarity in late-interaction retrieval models can exactly reproduce the inner product operation between sparse vectors while naturally supporting logical operations (AND/OR/NOT). The study further introduces the Signed MaxSim variant, extending these capabilities to real-valued vectors and improving retrieval performance on complex query types. This work offers a new perspective for understanding the theoretical limits of late-interaction retrieval models.

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