arXiv AI

Physics-Audited Agentic Discovery in Scientific Machine Learning

arXiv:2607. 07379v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: In agentic scientific machine learning (SciML), large language model (LLM) agents can discover surrogate models and select one by an automated score, typically an error metric.

arXiv AI
Aug 28

Beyond Execution: Auditing Experimental Fidelity in LLM-Driven Scientific Research

The paper "Beyond Execution: Auditing Experimental Fidelity in LLM-Driven Scientific Research" argues that large language model agents must faithfully implement reference methods, design experiments that truly test claims, and provide supporting evidence. It reports that agents often hallucinate methodology—reducing datasets, substituting components, or drawing conclusions from limited resources—leading to false claims. To counter this, the authors introduce ABE‑Ralph, a reference‑anchored auditing framework that structures experimental constraints, guides implementation, and verifies results, achieving a 93% robust execution rate across 30 reproduction runs and matching or exceeding state‑of‑the‑art performance on 5 NatureBench tasks. "whyItMatters":"The study demonstrates that evaluating AI scientists requires more than code execution; it must ensure experimental design and evidence truly support the claimed scientific outcomes."

By Lezhi Yu, Xiaogang Xu, Yuhua Zhou, Shuibing He, Aimin Pan
arXiv AI
2d ago

VeriHarness: Scaling Agentic Verification for Long-Horizon Tasks

VeriHarness is a method that enhances verification for large language model agents tackling long‑horizon tasks without needing reference answers at test time. It transforms the base LLM into an agentic verifier by providing a workspace, evidence tools, and reusable verification skills, using disagreement resolution and consensus challenge to evaluate competing claims. Across five benchmarks and two frontier models, VeriHarness outperforms baselines, achieving significant performance gains and demonstrating self‑improvement of verification skills from failure feedback.

By Caiqi Zhang, Rujun Han, Zifeng Wang, Zoey CuiZhu, Nigel Collier, Tomas Pfister, Chen-Yu Lee
arXiv AI
Jul 14

FIRE-Bench: Evaluating AI Agents on the Rediscovery of Scientific Insights

arXiv:2602. 02905v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Autonomous agents powered by large language models (LLMs) promise to accelerate scientific discovery end-to-end, but rigorously evaluating their capacity for verifiable discovery remains a central challenge.

By Zhen Wang, Fan Bai, Zhongyan Luo, Jinyan Su, Kaiser Sun, Xinle Yu, Jieyuan Liu, Kun Zhou, Claire Cardie, Mark Dredze, Zhiting Hu, Eric P. Xing
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 2

LLM-driven design of physics-constrained constitutive models: two agents are better than one

The paper presents a novel multi‑agent approach to generating physics‑constrained constitutive models using large language models (LLMs). A Creator agent proposes a model tailored to the data, while an Inspector agent audits each proposal against nine physical constraints and requests refinement if violations occur. Experiments with constitutive artificial neural networks on brain tissue, rubber, and porcine skin show that adding the Inspector increases the proportion of models passing all checks from 90 % to 95 % for Claude Opus 4.7 and from 47 % to 60 % for Kimi K2.5, while the resulting models match or exceed expert‑designed models in accuracy and generalization.

By Marius Tacke, Matthias Busch, Kian Abdolazizi, Jonas Eichinger, Kevin Linka, Roland Aydin, Christian Cyron
arXiv AI
Jul 8

FirstResearch: Auditable Question Formation for LLM Scientific Discovery Agents

arXiv:2607. 05682v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: LLM systems for scientific discovery increasingly assist with ideation, literature synthesis, experiment planning, and report generation, but the first research question they propose can remain difficult to audit: it may sound plausible without exposing the mechanism, falsifier, or assumption that a scientist should inspect.

By Yufeng Wang