A toy model of information retrieval system based on quantum probability

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simplified quantum-inspired model for information retrieval systems, exploring how physical assumptions about document statistics influence search engine performance.

Contribution

It proposes a minimalistic toy model based on quantum probability to analyze the impact of physical assumptions on retrieval effectiveness.

Findings

Quantum-inspired models can influence search performance.

Physical assumptions about document statistics are significant.

The toy model demonstrates potential benefits of non-classical probability in IR.

Abstract

Recent numerical results show that non-Bayesian knowledge revision may be helpful in search engine training and optimization. In order to demonstrate how basic assumption about about the physical nature (and hence the observed statistics) of retrieved documents can affect the performance of search engines we suggest an idealized toy model with minimal number of parameters.