# Riemannian Score-Based Generative Modelling

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.02763 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.02763/

## Key facts

- Cited by 219 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Diffusion foundations and sampling, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 48 of its 167 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 6 Feb 2022.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [Diffusion foundations and sampling](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/diffusion-foundations-and-sampling/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 48)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02502/) (2020)
- [Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13456/) (2020)
- [Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05233/) (2021)
- [Generative Modeling by Estimating Gradients of the Data Distribution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.05600/) (2019)
- [Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09672/) (2021)
- [Normalizing Flows for Probabilistic Modeling and Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.02762/) (2019)
- [Improved Techniques for Training Score-Based Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.09011/) (2020)
- [Computational Optimal Transport](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.00567/) (2018)
- [Diffusion Schr"odinger Bridge with Applications to Score-Based Generative Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.01357/) (2021)
- [Analytic-DPM: an Analytic Estimate of the Optimal Reverse Variance in Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.06503/) (2022)
- [Come-Closer-Diffuse-Faster: Accelerating Conditional Diffusion Models for Inverse Problems through Stochastic Contraction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.05146/) (2021)
- [Equivariant Flows: Exact Likelihood Generative Learning for Symmetric Densities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.02425/) (2020)
- [Gotta Go Fast When Generating Data with Score-Based Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.14080/) (2021)
- [Likelihood Training of Schr"odinger Bridge using Forward-Backward SDEs Theory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.11291/) (2021)
- [Conditional Image Generation with Score-Based Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.13606/) (2021)
- [SNIPS: Solving Noisy Inverse Problems Stochastically](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.14951/) (2021)
- [A Variational Perspective on Diffusion-Based Generative Models and Score Matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.02808/) (2021)
- [Riemannian Continuous Normalizing Flows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.10605/) (2020)
- [Solving Schr"odinger Bridges via Maximum Likelihood](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.02081/) (2021)
- [Learning to Efficiently Sample from Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.03802/) (2021)
- [Flows for simultaneous manifold learning and density estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.13913/) (2020)
- [Normalizing Flows on Tori and Spheres](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.02428/) (2020)
- [Continuous Hierarchical Representations with Poincar'e Variational Auto-Encoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.06033/) (2019)
- [Adversarial score matching and improved sampling for image generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.05475/) (2020)
- [Independent SE(3)-Equivariant Models for End-to-End Rigid Protein Docking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.07786/) (2021)
- [Neural Manifold Ordinary Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.10254/) (2020)
- [geomstats: a Python Package for Riemannian Geometry in Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.08308/) (2018)
- [Normalizing Flows on Riemannian Manifolds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.02304/) (2016)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 219)

- [Flow Matching for Generative Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.02747/) (2022)
- [Diffusion Models: A Comprehensive Survey of Methods and Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.00796/) (2022)
- [DiffDock: Diffusion Steps, Twists, and Turns for Molecular Docking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.01776/) (2022)
- [Flow Matching on General Geometries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.03660/) (2023)
- [Torsional Diffusion for Molecular Conformer Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.01729/) (2022)
- [Convergence of denoising diffusion models under the manifold hypothesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.05314/) (2022)
- [A Survey on Generative Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.02646/) (2022)
- [Practical and Asymptotically Exact Conditional Sampling in Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.17775/) (2023)
- [SE(3) diffusion model with application to protein backbone generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.02277/) (2023)
- [Image Restoration with Mean-Reverting Stochastic Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.11699/) (2023)
- [Generative Modelling With Inverse Heat Dissipation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.13397/) (2022)
- [SE(3)-Stochastic Flow Matching for Protein Backbone Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.02391/) (2023)
- [Crystal Structure Prediction by Joint Equivariant Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.04475/) (2023)
- [SE(3)-DiffusionFields: Learning smooth cost functions for joint grasp and motion optimization through diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.03855/) (2022)
- [GENIE: Higher-Order Denoising Diffusion Solvers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.05475/) (2022)
- [Score-Based Generative Models Detect Manifolds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.01018/) (2022)
- [Riemannian Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.07949/) (2022)
- [Protein Structure and Sequence Generation with Equivariant Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.15019/) (2022)
- [Understanding Reinforcement Learning-Based Fine-Tuning of Diffusion Models: A Tutorial and Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.13734/) (2024)
- [Reflected Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.04740/) (2023)
- [Adjoint Sampling: Highly Scalable Diffusion Samplers via Adjoint Matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.11713/) (2025)
- [Metric Flow Matching for Smooth Interpolations on the Data Manifold](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.14780/) (2024)
- [Fisher Flow Matching for Generative Modeling over Discrete Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.14664/) (2024)
- [Particle Guidance: non-I.I.D. Diverse Sampling with Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.13102/) (2023)
- [SALAD: Part-Level Latent Diffusion for 3D Shape Generation and Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.12236/) (2023)
- [Proteina: Scaling Flow-based Protein Structure Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.00710/) (2025)
- [Verifying the Union of Manifolds Hypothesis for Image Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.02862/) (2022)
- [Diffusion Models for Constrained Domains](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.05364/) (2023)
- [On the Design Fundamentals of Diffusion Models: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.04542/) (2023)
- [From Denoising Diffusions to Denoising Markov Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.03595/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Score-based generative models (SGMs) are a powerful class of generative models that exhibit remarkable empirical performance. Score-based generative modelling (SGM) consists of a ``noising'' stage, whereby a diffusion is used to gradually add Gaussian noise to data, and a generative model, which entails a ``denoising'' process defined by approximating the time-reversal of the diffusion. Existing SGMs assume that data is supported on a Euclidean space, i.e. a manifold with flat geometry. In many domains such as robotics, geoscience or protein modelling, data is often naturally described by distributions living on Riemannian manifolds and current SGM techniques are not appropriate. We introduce here Riemannian Score-based Generative Models (RSGMs), a class of generative models extending SGMs to Riemannian manifolds. We demonstrate our approach on a variety of manifolds, and in particular with earth and climate science spherical data.