mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Unpaired Image-to-Image Translation via Neural Schr"odinger Bridge

arXiv 2305.15086 ↗First posted 24 May 2023cs.CV cs.AI cs.LGcited by 96

On the map: Diffusion models → Diffusion foundations and sampling

Abstract (arXiv)

Diffusion models are a powerful class of generative models which simulate stochastic differential equations (SDEs) to generate data from noise. While diffusion models have achieved remarkable progress, they have limitations in unpaired image-to-image (I2I) translation tasks due to the Gaussian prior assumption. Schr"odinger Bridge (SB), which learns an SDE to translate between two arbitrary distributions, have risen as an attractive solution to this problem. Yet, to our best knowledge, none of SB models so far have been successful at unpaired translation between high-resolution images. In this work, we propose Unpaired Neural Schr"odinger Bridge (UNSB), which expresses the SB problem as a sequence of adversarial learning problems. This allows us to incorporate advanced discriminators and regularization to learn a SB between unpaired data. We show that UNSB is scalable and successfully solves various unpaired I2I translation tasks. Code: urlhttps://github.com/cyclomon/UNSB

Key facts. Cited by 96 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Diffusion foundations and sampling, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 44 of its 57 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 24 May 2023.

Builds on

44 of 57 references.

Closest ancestors · 11

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2023Diffusion Schr"odinger Bridge Matching29 Mar
  2. 2023I2SB: Image-to-Image Schr"odinger Bridge12 Feb
  3. 2022EGSDE: Unpaired Image-to-Image Translation via Energy-Guided Stochastic Differential Equations14 Jul
  4. 2022Riemannian Diffusion Schr"odinger Bridge7 Jul
  5. 2022Conditional Simulation Using Diffusion Schr"odinger Bridges27 Feb
  6. 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models20 Dec
  7. 2021Tackling the Generative Learning Trilemma with Denoising Diffusion GANs15 Dec
  8. 2021Diffusion Schr"odinger Bridge with Applications to Score-Based Generative Modeling1 Jun
  9. 2020Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equations26 Nov
  10. 2020Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models6 Oct
  11. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models19 Jun

Other references · 33

  1. 2015Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamicscited by 7,005
  2. 2016Image-to-Image Translation with Conditional Adversarial Networkscited by 4,510
  3. 2017Progressive Growing of GANs for Improved Quality, Stability, and Variationcited by 2,967
  4. 2022Prompt-to-Prompt Image Editing with Cross Attention Controlcited by 2,409
  5. 2021SDEdit: Guided Image Synthesis and Editing with Stochastic Differential Equationscited by 1,903
  6. 2022Diffusion Posterior Sampling for General Noisy Inverse Problemscited by 1,375
  7. 2019StarGAN v2: Diverse Image Synthesis for Multiple Domainscited by 1,095
  8. 2014NICE: Non-linear Independent Components Estimationcited by 1,052
  9. 2018Multimodal Unsupervised Image-to-Image Translationcited by 795
  10. 2018MINE: Mutual Information Neural Estimationcited by 680
  11. 2020Contrastive Learning for Unpaired Image-to-Image Translationcited by 637
  12. 2013A survey of the Schr"odinger problem and some of its connections with optimal transportcited by 286
21 more
  1. 2023Multisample Flow Matching: Straightening Flows with Minibatch Couplingscited by 267
  2. 2021Likelihood Training of Schr"odinger Bridge using Forward-Backward SDEs Theorycited by 216
  3. 2022Dual Diffusion Implicit Bridges for Image-to-Image Translationcited by 212
  4. 2021Path Integral Sampler: a stochastic control approach for samplingcited by 175
  5. 2023Inversion by Direct Iteration: An Alternative to Denoising Diffusion for Image Restorationcited by 164
  6. 2021Solving Schr"odinger Bridges via Maximum Likelihoodcited by 140
  7. 2022Neural Optimal Transportcited by 123
  8. 2018Geometry-Consistent Generative Adversarial Networks for One-Sided Unsupervised Domain Mappingcited by 113
  9. 2021Deep Generative Learning via Schr"odinger Bridgecited by 103
  10. 2017One-Sided Unsupervised Domain Mappingcited by 91
  11. 2021The Spatially-Correlative Loss for Various Image Translation Taskscited by 66
  12. 2022The Schr"odinger Bridge between Gaussian Measures has a Closed Formcited by 63
  13. 2020Reusing Discriminators for Encoding: Towards Unsupervised Image-to-Image Translationcited by 60
  14. 2022Entropic Neural Optimal Transport via Diffusion Processescited by 49
  15. 2022Deep Generalized Schr"odinger Bridgecited by 47
  16. 2021Instance-wise Hard Negative Example Generation for Contrastive Learning in Unpaired Image-to-Image Translationcited by 45
  17. 2022Exploring Patch-wise Semantic Relation for Contrastive Learning in Image-to-Image Translation Taskscited by 42
  18. 2022Can Push-forward Generative Models Fit Multimodal Distributions?cited by 41
  19. 2020Reflected Schr"odinger Bridge: Density Control with Path Constraintscited by 22
  20. 2023Transport with Support: Data-Conditional Diffusion Bridgescited by 9
  21. 2022Unbiased Estimation using a Class of Diffusion Processescited by 4

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2023: 5; 2024: 26; 2025: 33; 2026: 32.

96 papers.

Sort:

By area:

  1. 2024Light and Optimal Schr"odinger Bridge Matchingcited by 45
  2. 2024Self-Consistent Recursive Diffusion Bridge for Medical Image Translationcited by 26
  3. 2024Discrete Diffusion Schr"odinger Bridge Matching for Graph Transformationcited by 21
  4. 2023IMPUS: Image Morphing with Perceptually-Uniform Sampling Using Diffusion Modelscited by 20
  5. 2024Fr'echet Radiomic Distance (FRD): A Versatile Metric for Comparing Medical Imaging Datasetscited by 19
  6. 2023Light Schr"odinger Bridgecited by 18
  7. 2025DiffV2IR: Visible-to-Infrared Diffusion Model via Vision-Language Understandingcited by 16
  8. 2024Implicit Image-to-Image Schrodinger Bridge for Image Restorationcited by 13
  9. 2024CUNSB-RFIE: Context-aware Unpaired Neural Schr"odinger Bridge in Retinal Fundus Image Enhancementcited by 13
  10. 2024Adversarial Schr"odinger Bridge Matchingcited by 12
  11. 2024StainDiffuser: MultiTask Dual Diffusion Model for Virtual Stainingcited by 11
  12. 2024Generalized Consistency Trajectory Models for Image Manipulationcited by 11
38 more
  1. 2023Neural Schr"odinger Bridge with Sinkhorn Losses: Application to Data-driven Minimum Effort Control of Colloidal Self-assemblycited by 10
  2. 2025Distribution Prototype Diffusion Learning for Open-set Supervised Anomaly Detectioncited by 10
  3. 2024Towards Robust Event-based Networks for Nighttime via Unpaired Day-to-Night Event Translationcited by 9
  4. 2025Bidirectional Diffusion Bridge Modelscited by 8
  5. 2025When Schr"odinger Bridge Meets Real-World Image Dehazing with Unpaired Trainingcited by 8
  6. 2024F2FLDM: Latent Diffusion Models with Histopathology Pre-Trained Embeddings for Unpaired Frozen Section to FFPE Translationcited by 6
  7. 2024Synthetic to Authentic: Transferring Realism to 3D Face Renderings for Boosting Face Recognitioncited by 5
  8. 2024Scalable Simulation-free Entropic Unbalanced Optimal Transportcited by 5
  9. 2024Paired Wasserstein Autoencoders for Conditional Samplingcited by 5
  10. 2025MixBridge: Heterogeneous Image-to-Image Backdoor Attack through Mixture of Schr"odinger Bridgescited by 5
  11. 2025Deterministic Image-to-Image Translation via Denoising Brownian Bridge Models with Dual Approximatorscited by 5
  12. 2024Rethinking Perceptual Metrics for Medical Image Translationcited by 4
  13. 2025Single-Step Bidirectional Unpaired Image Translation Using Implicit Bridge Consistency Distillationcited by 4
  14. 2025System-Embedded Diffusion Bridge Modelscited by 4
  15. 2023OCT2Confocal: 3D CycleGAN based Translation of Retinal OCT Images to Confocal Microscopycited by 3
  16. 2024MRGen: Segmentation Data Engine for Underrepresented MRI Modalitiescited by 3
  17. 2025Universal Vessel Segmentation for Multi-Modality Retinal Imagescited by 3
  18. 2025RASMD: RGB And SWIR Multispectral Driving Dataset for Robust Perception in Adverse Conditionscited by 3
  19. 2025USIGAN: Unbalanced Self-Information Feature Transport for Weakly Paired Image IHC Virtual Stainingcited by 3
  20. 2025Fractional Diffusion Bridge Modelscited by 3
  21. 2025FlowEO: Generative Unsupervised Domain Adaptation for Earth Observationcited by 3
  22. 2026StyMam: A Mamba-Based Generator for Artistic Style Transfercited by 3
  23. 2026TherA: Thermal-Aware Visual-Language Prompting for Controllable RGB-to-Thermal Infrared Translationcited by 3
  24. 2023Masked Discriminators for Content-Consistent Unpaired Image-to-Image Translationcited by 2
  25. 2024ContourDiff: Unpaired Medical Image Translation with Structural Consistencycited by 2
  26. 2024CT-based brain ventricle segmentation via diffusion Schr"odinger Bridge without target domain ground truthscited by 2
  27. 2025Multimodal Diffusion Bridge with Attention-Based SAR Fusion for Satellite Image Cloud Removalcited by 2
  28. 2025Schr"odinger Bridge Matching for Tree-Structured Costs and Entropic Wasserstein Barycentrescited by 2
  29. 2025Generative AI for Misalignment-Resistant Virtual Staining to Accelerate Histopathology Workflowscited by 2
  30. 2025Zero-Shot Video Deraining with Video Diffusion Modelscited by 2
  31. 2026Auditing Sybil: Explaining Deep Lung Cancer Risk Prediction Through Generative Interventional Attributionscited by 2
  32. 2024FashionR2R: Texture-preserving Rendered-to-Real Image Translation with Diffusion Modelscited by 1
  33. 2024Guided MRI Reconstruction via Schr"odinger Bridgecited by 1
  34. 2024DiffuPT: Class Imbalance Mitigation for Glaucoma Detection via Diffusion Based Generation and Model Pretrainingcited by 1
  35. 2025Schr"odinger Diffusion Driven Signal Recovery in 3T BOLD fMRI Using Unmatched 7T Observationscited by 1
  36. 2025Three Forms of Stochastic Injection for Improved Distribution-to-Distribution Generative Modelingcited by 1
  37. 2025Curvilinear Structure-preserving Unpaired Cross-domain Medical Image Translationcited by 1
  38. 2026Unpaired Image-to-Image Translation via a Self-Supervised Semantic Bridgecited by 1

50 most cited of 96 All 96 (JSON)

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2024Latent Schrodinger Bridge: Prompting Latent Diffusion for Fast Unpaired Image-to-Image Translation
  2. 2021UNIT-DDPM: UNpaired Image Translation with Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models
  3. 2025Contrastive-SDE: Guiding Stochastic Differential Equations with Contrastive Learning for Unpaired Image-to-Image Translation
  4. 2025A Unified Framework for Diffusion Bridge Problems: Flow Matching and Schr"odinger Matching into One
  5. 2025CycleDiff: Cycle Diffusion Models for Unpaired Image-to-image Translation
  6. 2026DBMSolver: A Training-free Diffusion Bridge Sampler for High-Quality Image-to-Image Translation
  7. 2024Sch"odinger Bridge Type Diffusion Models as an Extension of Variational Autoencoders
  8. 2024Schr"odinger Bridge Flow for Unpaired Data Translation