{"ID":2878909,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.17345","arxiv_id":"2508.17345","title":"ShortListing Model: A Streamlined SimplexDiffusion for Discrete Variable Generation","abstract":"Generative modeling of discrete variables is challenging yet crucial for applications in natural language processing and biological sequence design. We introduce the Shortlisting Model (SLM), a novel simplex-based diffusion model inspired by progressive candidate pruning. SLM operates on simplex centroids, reducing generation complexity and enhancing scalability. Additionally, SLM incorporates a flexible implementation of classifier-free guidance, enhancing unconditional generation performance. Extensive experiments on DNA promoter and enhancer design, protein design, character-level and large-vocabulary language modeling demonstrate the competitive performance and strong potential of SLM. Our code can be found at https://github.com/GenSI-THUAIR/SLM","short_abstract":"Generative modeling of discrete variables is challenging yet crucial for applications in natural language processing and biological sequence design. We introduce the Shortlisting Model (SLM), a novel simplex-based diffusion model inspired by progressive candidate pruning. SLM operates on simplex centroids, reducing gen...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.17345","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.17345v1","authors":"[\"Yuxuan Song\",\"Zhe Zhang\",\"Yu Pei\",\"Jingjing Gong\",\"Qiying Yu\",\"Zheng Zhang\",\"Mingxuan Wang\",\"Hao Zhou\",\"Jingjing Liu\",\"Wei-Ying Ma\"]","published":"2025-08-24T13:03:02Z","proceeding":"cs.LG","tasks":"[\"cs.LG\",\"q-bio.GN\"]","methods":"[\"Diffusion Model\",\"Language Model\"]","has_code":false,"code_links":[{"ID":610524,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_id":2878909,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.17345","paper_title":"ShortListing Model: A Streamlined SimplexDiffusion for Discrete Variable Generation","repo_url":"https://github.com/GenSI-THUAIR/SLM","is_official":false,"mentioned_in_paper":false,"mentioned_in_github":true,"github_stars":0}]}