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Equation 7 · Part 9 · Naive, Graph, and Agentic: A Systems Comparison of RAG Architectures

subscript

p(y∣x)≈∑z∈Zk(x)pη(z∣x) pθ(y∣x,z),p(y \mid x) \approx \sum_{z \in \mathcal{Z}_k(x)} p_\eta(z \mid x)\, p_\theta(y \mid x, z),
subscript

What this part means

The lower label selects a particular version, component, or indexed member of the quantity. For example, x₀ and xₜ can be values at different positions.

Its job in the formula

A subscript distinguishes a version, component, step, or member of a quantity. It does not automatically mean multiplication.

The passage around this formula

Start with the architecture that gives the pattern its name. A query is encoded, a retriever returns its top- k passages against a fixed index, and a generator conditions on those passages to produce one answer. No step revisits an earlier one. Lewis and colleagues’ original formulation makes the mechanism explicit: writing x for the query, y for the output, and z for a retrieved passage drawn from a top- k set Zk(x)\mathcal{Z}_k(x) , the model marginalises over that set, p(y∣x)≈∑z∈Zk(x)pη(z∣x) pθ(y∣x,z)p(y \mid x) \approx \sum_{z \in \mathcal{Z}_k(x)} p_\eta(z \mid x)\, p_\theta(y \mid x, z). with retriever parameters η\eta and generator parameters θ\theta [ 1 ] . One retrieval call, one generation pass, and the entire system’s dependence on the corpus runs through that single set Zk(x)\mathcal{Z}_k(x)…

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Learn the underlying idea

A subscript is a label attached below a symbol. It often selects a time step, component, category, or member of a sequence.

Open the illustrated subscripts: which member of a family? guide →

Sources cited in the surrounding passage

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