The Evolution of Reranking Models in Information Retrieval: From Heuristic Methods to Large Language Models

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive survey of reranking models in information retrieval, tracing their evolution from heuristic methods to advanced neural architectures and large language models, emphasizing efficiency and practical trade-offs.

Contribution

It offers a detailed overview of historical and modern reranking techniques, including neural models and LLM integration, highlighting their principles, effectiveness, and computational considerations.

Findings

Neural rerankers like cross-encoders and GNNs have improved relevance.

Knowledge distillation enables lighter, efficient rerankers.

LLMs are increasingly integrated into reranking with novel prompting strategies.

Abstract

Reranking is a critical stage in contemporary information retrieval (IR) systems, improving the relevance of the user-presented final results by honing initial candidate sets. This paper is a thorough guide to examine the changing reranker landscape and offer a clear view of the advancements made in reranking methods. We present a comprehensive survey of reranking models employed in IR, particularly within modern Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines, where retrieved documents notably influence output quality. We embark on a chronological journey through the historical trajectory of reranking techniques, starting with foundational approaches, before exploring the wide range of sophisticated neural network architectures such as cross-encoders, sequence-generation models like T5, and Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) utilized for structural information. Recognizing the computational cost of advancing neural rerankers, we analyze techniques for enhancing efficiency, notably knowledge distillation for creating competitive, lighter alternatives. Furthermore, we map the emerging territory of integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) in reranking, examining novel prompting strategies and fine-tuning tactics. This survey seeks to elucidate the fundamental ideas, relative effectiveness, computational features, and real-world trade-offs of various reranking strategies. The survey provides a structured synthesis of the diverse reranking paradigms, highlighting their underlying principles and comparative strengths and weaknesses.