Beyond Scalar Uncertainty: Independent Neutrosophic Evidence Coordinates for Conflict-Aware Retrieval-Augmented Generation

Authors

• Florentin Smarandache, University of New Mexico, Mathematics, Physics and Natural Science Division
• Maikel Yelandi Leyva Vazquez, Universidad Bolivariana del Ecuador, Guayaquil, Ecuador

Abstract

Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines reduce the quality of retrieved evidence to one number, and common scalar uncertainty summaries conflate evidential distinctions that a three-coordinate representation keeps apart: insufficient, contradictory and explicitly indeterminate evidence. We use the non-normalized neutrosophic triple (T, I, F) as a testable multidimensional evidence representation, with independent channels for support, explicit indeterminacy and opposition, and subject its defining design principle to a controlled empirical test on a pre-specified battery built on Climate-FEVER, validated externally on ConfRAG. The independent triple gives the best five-way behaviour with the LLM evaluator; normalization deletes the magnitude that signals insufficiency. The benefit is task-dependent rather than universal.

Recommended Citation

Smarandache, Florentin and Maikel Yelandi Leyva Vazquez. "Beyond Scalar Uncertainty: Independent Neutrosophic Evidence Coordinates for Conflict-Aware Retrieval-Augmented Generation." Neutrosophic Sets and Systems 101, 1 (2026). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nss_journal/vol101/iss1/9