mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Theoretical guarantees in KL for Diffusion Flow Matching

arXiv 2409.08311 ↗First posted 12 Sep 2024stat.ML cs.LG math.PRcited by 14

On the map: Diffusion models → Flow matching, time series and science

Abstract (arXiv)

Flow Matching (FM) (also referred to as stochastic interpolants or rectified flows) stands out as a class of generative models that aims to bridge in finite time the target distribution nu^star with an auxiliary distribution μ, leveraging a fixed coupling π and a bridge which can either be deterministic or stochastic. These two ingredients define a path measure which can then be approximated by learning the drift of its Markovian projection. The main contribution of this paper is to provide relatively mild assumptions on nu^star, μ and π to obtain non-asymptotics guarantees for Diffusion Flow Matching (DFM) models using as bridge the conditional distribution associated with the Brownian motion. More precisely, we establish bounds on the Kullback-Leibler divergence between the target distribution and the one generated by such DFM models under moment conditions on the score of nu^star, μ and π, and a standard L2-drift-approximation error assumption.

Key facts. Cited by 14 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Flow matching, time series and science, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 28 of its 48 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 12 Sep 2024.

Builds on

28 of 48 references.

Closest ancestors · 3

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2022Flow Matching for Generative Modeling6 Oct
  2. 2022Rectified Flow: A Marginal Preserving Approach to Optimal Transport29 Sep
  3. 2022Flow Straight and Fast: Learning to Generate and Transfer Data with Rectified Flow7 Sep

Other references · 25

  1. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 21,076
  2. 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 18,863
  3. 2015Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamicscited by 7,058
  4. 2022Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latentscited by 6,585
  5. 2019Generative Modeling by Estimating Gradients of the Data Distributioncited by 4,101
  6. 2022Building Normalizing Flows with Stochastic Interpolantscited by 995
  7. 2023Stochastic Interpolants: A Unifying Framework for Flows and Diffusionscited by 939
  8. 2021Diffusion Schr"odinger Bridge with Applications to Score-Based Generative Modelingcited by 602
  9. 2019Neural Spline Flowscited by 596
  10. 2021Grad-TTS: A Diffusion Probabilistic Model for Text-to-Speechcited by 447
  11. 2022Sampling is as easy as learning the score: theory for diffusion models with minimal data assumptionscited by 445
  12. 2022Convergence of denoising diffusion models under the manifold hypothesiscited by 242
13 more
  1. 2023Nearly d-Linear Convergence Bounds for Diffusion Models via Stochastic Localizationcited by 235
  2. 2020How to train your neural ODE: the world of Jacobian and kinetic regularizationcited by 228
  3. 2021Likelihood Training of Schr"odinger Bridge using Forward-Backward SDEs Theorycited by 219
  4. 2022Improved Analysis of Score-based Generative Modeling: User-Friendly Bounds under Minimal Smoothness Assumptionscited by 219
  5. 2022Convergence of score-based generative modeling for general data distributionscited by 181
  6. 2023Diffusion Schr"odinger Bridge Matchingcited by 153
  7. 2023The probability flow ODE is provably fastcited by 146
  8. 2020OT-Flow: Fast and Accurate Continuous Normalizing Flows via Optimal Transportcited by 143
  9. 2023Error Bounds for Flow Matching Methodscited by 91
  10. 2023Non-Denoising Forward-Time Diffusionscited by 77
  11. 2024Convergence Analysis for General Probability Flow ODEs of Diffusion Models in Wasserstein Distancescited by 56
  12. 2024Convergence of Continuous Normalizing Flows for Learning Probability Distributionscited by 26
  13. 2023Improved Convergence of Score-Based Diffusion Models via Prediction-Correctioncited by 24

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Citing papers per year: 2024: 1; 2025: 7; 2026: 6.

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  1. 2024Flow matching achieves almost minimax optimal convergence
  2. 2025Distribution estimation via Flow Matching with Lipschitz guarantees
  3. 2025On the minimax optimality of Flow Matching through the connection to kernel density estimation
  4. 2025Theoretical Guarantees for High Order Trajectory Refinement in Generative Flows
  5. 2026A Unified Measure-Theoretic View of Diffusion, Score-Based, and Flow Matching Generative Models
  6. 2026The Geometry Behind Diffusion and Flow Matching: Gradient Flows and Geodesics in Wasserstein Space
  7. 2026Limit Points of Reflow with Minibatch Optimal Transport
  8. 2024Flow map matching with stochastic interpolants: A mathematical framework for consistency models