# Physics-inspired Generative AI models via real hardware-based noisy quantum diffusion

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.22193 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.22193/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Diffusion foundations and sampling, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 27 of its 89 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 28 May 2025.

## Placed in

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

## Builds on (most cited first, 27 of 27)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05233/) (2021)
- [Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.03585/) (2015)
- [Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11487/) (2022)
- [Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.00667/) (2022)
- [Rethinking the Inception Architecture for Computer Vision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.00567/) (2015)
- [Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09672/) (2021)
- [Variational Inference with Normalizing Flows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.05770/) (2015)
- [Structured Denoising Diffusion Models in Discrete State-Spaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.03006/) (2021)
- [RePaint: Inpainting using Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.09865/) (2022)
- [DiffWave: A Versatile Diffusion Model for Audio Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.09761/) (2020)
- [An Introduction to Variational Autoencoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.02691/) (2019)
- [CSDI: Conditional Score-based Diffusion Models for Probabilistic Time Series Imputation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.03502/) (2021)
- [Argmax Flows and Multinomial Diffusion: Learning Categorical Distributions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.05379/) (2021)
- [Quantum generative adversarial networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.08641/) (2018)
- [Quantum Variational Autoencoder](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.05779/) (2018)
- [Generative quantum machine learning via denoising diffusion probabilistic models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.05866/) (2023)
- [Quantum-Noise-Driven Generative Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.12013/) (2023)
- [A Framework for Demonstrating Practical Quantum Advantage: Racing Quantum against Classical Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.15626/) (2023)
- [Simulated Quantum Annealing Can Be Exponentially Faster than Classical Simulated Annealing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1601.03030/) (2016)
- [Quantum Generative Diffusion Model: A Fully Quantum-Mechanical Model for Generating Quantum State Ensemble](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.07039/) (2024)
- [A hybrid quantum image edge detector for the NISQ era](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.12072/) (2022)
- [Experimental quantum pattern recognition in IBMQ and diamond NVs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.00561/) (2022)
- [Transfer learning with generative models for object detection on limited datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.06784/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Quantum Generative Diffusion Model for Real-World Time Series](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.27561/) (2026)
- [Quantum Diffusion Models for Medical Image Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.31070/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Quantum Diffusion Models (QDMs) are an emerging paradigm in Generative AI that aims to use quantum properties to improve the performances of their classical counterparts. However, existing algorithms are not easily scalable due to the limitations of near-term quantum devices. Following our previous work on QDMs, here we propose and implement two physics-inspired protocols. In the first, we use the formalism of quantum stochastic walks, showing that a specific interplay of quantum and classical dynamics in the forward process produces statistically more robust models generating sets of MNIST images with lower Fr'echet Inception Distance (FID) than using totally classical dynamics. In the second approach, we realize an algorithm to generate images by exploiting the intrinsic noise of real IBM quantum hardware with only four qubits. Our work could be a starting point to pave the way for new scenarios for large-scale algorithms in quantum Generative AI, where quantum noise is neither mitigated nor corrected, but instead exploited as a useful resource.