mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

A Comprehensive Survey on Diffusion Models and Their Applications

arXiv 2408.10207 ↗First posted 1 Jul 2024cs.CVcited by 4

On the map: Diffusion models → Diffusion foundations and sampling

Abstract (arXiv)

Diffusion Models are probabilistic models that create realistic samples by simulating the diffusion process, gradually adding and removing noise from data. These models have gained popularity in domains such as image processing, speech synthesis, and natural language processing due to their ability to produce high-quality samples. As Diffusion Models are being adopted in various domains, existing literature reviews that often focus on specific areas like computer vision or medical imaging may not serve a broader audience across multiple fields. Therefore, this review presents a comprehensive overview of Diffusion Models, covering their theoretical foundations and algorithmic innovations. We highlight their applications in diverse areas such as media quality, authenticity, synthesis, image transformation, healthcare, and more. By consolidating current knowledge and identifying emerging trends, this review aims to facilitate a deeper understanding and broader adoption of Diffusion Models and provide guidelines for future researchers and practitioners across diverse disciplines.

Key facts. Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Diffusion foundations and sampling, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 72 of its 98 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 1 Jul 2024.

Builds on

72 of 98 references.

Closest ancestors · 14

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2023User-defined Event Sampling and Uncertainty Quantification in Diffusion Models for Physical Dynamical Systems13 Jun
  2. 2023FreeDoM: Training-Free Energy-Guided Conditional Diffusion Model17 Mar
  3. 2022Improving Sample Quality of Diffusion Models Using Self-Attention Guidance3 Oct
  4. 2022Semantic Image Synthesis via Diffusion Models30 Jun
  5. 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models20 Dec
  6. 2021ILVR: Conditioning Method for Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models6 Aug
  7. 2021Structured Denoising Diffusion Models in Discrete State-Spaces7 Jul
  8. 2021Variational Diffusion Models1 Jul
  9. 2021Cascaded Diffusion Models for High Fidelity Image Generation30 May
  10. 2021Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesis11 May
  11. 2021Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models18 Feb
  12. 2020Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equations26 Nov
2 more
  1. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models19 Jun
  2. 2020Improved Techniques for Training Score-Based Generative Models16 Jun

Other references · 58

  1. 2015Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamicscited by 7,005
  2. 2016"Why Should I Trust You?": Explaining the Predictions of Any Classifiercited by 5,040
  3. 2021Zero-Shot Text-to-Image Generationcited by 4,276
  4. 2019Generative Modeling by Estimating Gradients of the Data Distributioncited by 4,067
  5. 2014Deep Learning Face Attributes in the Wildcited by 3,679
  6. 2021GLIDE: Towards Photorealistic Image Generation and Editing with Text-Guided Diffusion Modelscited by 3,595
  7. 2015Deep Compression: Compressing Deep Neural Networks with Pruning, Trained Quantization and Huffman Codingcited by 2,291
  8. 2022Video Diffusion Modelscited by 2,280
  9. 2017Quantization and Training of Neural Networks for Efficient Integer-Arithmetic-Only Inferencecited by 1,548
  10. 2021Image Super-Resolution via Iterative Refinementcited by 1,506
  11. 2015LSUN: Construction of a Large-scale Image Dataset using Deep Learning with Humans in the Loopcited by 1,350
  12. 2020DiffWave: A Versatile Diffusion Model for Audio Synthesiscited by 1,339
38 more
  1. 2022DiffuSeq: Sequence to Sequence Text Generation with Diffusion Modelscited by 439
  2. 2021Come-Closer-Diffuse-Faster: Accelerating Conditional Diffusion Models for Inverse Problems through Stochastic Contractioncited by 306
  3. 2023Your Diffusion Model is Secretly a Zero-Shot Classifiercited by 301
  4. 2022Diffusion Models for Medical Image Analysis: A Comprehensive Surveycited by 269
  5. 2021Deblurring via Stochastic Refinementcited by 248
  6. 2023Object Motion Guided Human Motion Synthesiscited by 206
  7. 2018Medical Image Synthesis for Data Augmentation and Anonymization using Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 146
  8. 2023Low-Light Image Enhancement with Wavelet-based Diffusion Modelscited by 126
  9. 2022VIDM: Video Implicit Diffusion Modelscited by 78
  10. 2023Long-Term Photometric Consistent Novel View Synthesis with Diffusion Modelscited by 76
  11. 2023Guided Image Synthesis via Initial Image Editing in Diffusion Modelcited by 63
  12. 2022DiffDreamer: Towards Consistent Unsupervised Single-view Scene Extrapolation with Conditional Diffusion Modelscited by 51
  13. 2023Exposing the Fake: Effective Diffusion-Generated Images Detectioncited by 48
  14. 2022Semantic-Conditional Diffusion Networks for Image Captioningcited by 38
  15. 2023DocDiff: Document Enhancement via Residual Diffusion Modelscited by 37
  16. 2023Unlearnable Examples for Diffusion Models: Protect Data from Unauthorized Exploitationcited by 37
  17. 2023Relightify: Relightable 3D Faces from a Single Image via Diffusion Modelscited by 34
  18. 2023Towards High-quality HDR Deghosting with Conditional Diffusion Modelscited by 33
  19. 2023Diffusion-based Data Augmentation for Nuclei Image Segmentationcited by 31
  20. 2024MatFusion: A Generative Diffusion Model for SVBRDF Capturecited by 31
  21. 2023CLE Diffusion: Controllable Light Enhancement Diffusion Modelcited by 30
  22. 2022Generating Realistic Brain MRIs via a Conditional Diffusion Probabilistic Modelcited by 28
  23. 2023DisC-Diff: Disentangled Conditional Diffusion Model for Multi-Contrast MRI Super-Resolutioncited by 28
  24. 2023BerDiff: Conditional Bernoulli Diffusion Model for Medical Image Segmentationcited by 27
  25. 2023Degeneration-Tuning: Using Scrambled Grid shield Unwanted Concepts from Stable Diffusioncited by 27
  26. 2022DeScoD-ECG: Deep Score-Based Diffusion Model for ECG Baseline Wander and Noise Removalcited by 25
  27. 2024Your Diffusion Model is Secretly a Certifiably Robust Classifiercited by 24
  28. 2023Controllable Inversion of Black-Box Face Recognition Models via Diffusioncited by 22
  29. 2023EquiDiff: A Conditional Equivariant Diffusion Model For Trajectory Predictioncited by 21
  30. 2023CLIPSonic: Text-to-Audio Synthesis with Unlabeled Videos and Pretrained Language-Vision Modelscited by 20
  31. 2023NASDM: Nuclei-Aware Semantic Histopathology Image Generation Using Diffusion Modelscited by 18
  32. 2023ACDMSR: Accelerated Conditional Diffusion Models for Single Image Super-Resolutioncited by 18
  33. 2023Unlearnable Examples Give a False Sense of Security: Piercing through Unexploitable Data with Learnable Examplescited by 17
  34. 2023Score dynamics: scaling molecular dynamics with picoseconds timestep via conditional diffusion modelcited by 16
  35. 2023Not All Steps are Created Equal: Selective Diffusion Distillation for Image Manipulationcited by 11
  36. 2023Semantic Image Synthesis for Abdominal CTcited by 10
  37. 2022NoreSpeech: Knowledge Distillation based Conditional Diffusion Model for Noise-robust Expressive TTScited by 8
  38. 2023SketchFFusion: Sketch-guided image editing with diffusion modelcited by 8

50 most cited of 58 All 58 (JSON)

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 1; 2025: 1; 2026: 2.

4 papers.

  1. 2024Guiding a diffusion model using sliding windowscited by 2
  2. 2026A Unified Measure-Theoretic View of Diffusion, Score-Based, and Flow Matching Generative Modelscited by 1
  3. 2025PathoSyn: Imaging-Pathology MRI Synthesis via Disentangled Deviation Diffusioncited by 0
  4. 2026The Probabilistic Structure of Large Language Modelscited by 0

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  2. 2022Diffusion Models in Vision: A Survey
  3. 2024An Overview of Diffusion Models: Applications, Guided Generation, Statistical Rates and Optimization
  4. 2025Efficient Diffusion Models: A Survey
  5. 2025Computationally Efficient Diffusion Models in Medical Imaging: A Comprehensive Review
  6. 2025Diffusion Model Quantization: A Review
  7. 2024Generative Diffusion Modeling: A Practical Handbook
  8. 2024Random Walks with Tweedie: A Unified View of Score-Based Diffusion Models