← All parts of this equation

Equation 28 · Part 1 · Naive, Graph, and Agentic: A Systems Comparison of RAG Architectures

Symbol k

kk
kk

What this part means

k is a part of this expression. Its role is fixed by the surrounding article and by the operations shown in the formula.

Its job in the formula

k is a part of this expression. Its role is fixed by the surrounding article and by the operations shown in the formula.

The passage around this formula

Both approaches share the same engineering consequence: the number of retrieval-generation rounds, call it k , is no longer fixed at one. Latency and cost scale with k , and unlike the naive or hybrid families, k is now a property of the question rather than of the architecture — a single-hop question still costs roughly one round, but a four-hop question costs roughly four, and the system pays that…

Read this part in the article →

Learn the underlying idea

A variable is a named place for a value. Its letter is a local label: x can mean position in one formula and a data point in another.

Open the illustrated variables: a letter stands for a value guide →

See this notation across published equations →

Sources cited in the article section

These citations provide research context; check each source for the exact claim it supports.