mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Unrestrained Simplex Denoising for Discrete Data. A Non-Markovian Approach Applied to Graph Generation

arXiv 2603.28572 ↗First posted 30 Mar 2026cs.LGcited by 2

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

Abstract (arXiv)

Denoising models such as Diffusion or Flow Matching have recently advanced generative modeling for discrete structures, yet most approaches either operate directly in the discrete state space, causing abrupt state changes. We introduce simplex denoising, a simple yet effective generative framework that operates on the probability simplex. The key idea is a non-Markovian noising scheme in which, for a given clean data point, noisy representations at different times are conditionally independent. While preserving the theoretical guarantees of denoising-based generative models, our method removes unnecessary constraints, thereby improving performance and simplifying the formulation. Empirically, unrestrained simplex denoising surpasses strong discrete diffusion and flow-matching baselines across synthetic and real-world graph benchmarks. These results highlight the probability simplex as an effective framework for discrete generative modeling.

Key facts. Cited by 2 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 42 of its 51 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 30 Mar 2026.

Builds on

42 of 51 references.

Closest ancestors · 17

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025Simple and Critical Iterative Denoising: A Recasting of Discrete Diffusion in Graph Generation27 Mar
  2. 2024DeFoG: Discrete Flow Matching for Graph Generation5 Oct
  3. 2024Discrete Flow Matching22 Jul
  4. 2024Advancing Graph Generation through Beta Diffusion13 Jun
  5. 2024Variational Flow Matching for Graph Generation7 Jun
  6. 2024Discrete-state Continuous-time Diffusion for Graph Generation19 May
  7. 2024Dirichlet Flow Matching with Applications to DNA Sequence Design8 Feb
  8. 2024Generative Flows on Discrete State-Spaces: Enabling Multimodal Flows with Applications to Protein Co-Design7 Feb
  9. 2024Pard: Permutation-Invariant Autoregressive Diffusion for Graph Generation6 Feb
  10. 2023Sparse Training of Discrete Diffusion Models for Graph Generation3 Nov
  11. 2023Autoregressive Diffusion Model for Graph Generation17 Jul
  12. 2023Dirichlet Diffusion Score Model for Biological Sequence Generation18 May
5 more
  1. 2023Efficient and Degree-Guided Graph Generation via Discrete Diffusion Modeling6 May
  2. 2022Diffusion Models for Graphs Benefit From Discrete State Spaces4 Oct
  3. 2022DiGress: Discrete Denoising diffusion for graph generation29 Sep
  4. 2022Score-based Generative Modeling of Graphs via the System of Stochastic Differential Equations5 Feb
  5. 2020Permutation Invariant Graph Generation via Score-Based Generative Modeling2 Mar

Other references · 25

  1. 2020Denoising Diffusion Implicit Modelscited by 9,781
  2. 2021Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 3,761
  3. 2021Structured Denoising Diffusion Models in Discrete State-Spacescited by 1,719
  4. 2022A Continuous Time Framework for Discrete Denoising Modelscited by 451
  5. 2018GraphRNN: Generating Realistic Graphs with Deep Auto-regressive Modelscited by 413
  6. 2018MolGAN: An implicit generative model for small molecular graphscited by 393
  7. 2018GraphVAE: Towards Generation of Small Graphs Using Variational Autoencoderscited by 383
  8. 2020GraphAF: a Flow-based Autoregressive Model for Molecular Graph Generationcited by 305
  9. 2019Efficient Graph Generation with Graph Recurrent Attention Networkscited by 234
  10. 2019What graph neural networks cannot learn: depth vs widthcited by 201
  11. 2018Fr'echet ChemNet Distance: A metric for generative models for molecules in drug discoverycited by 194
  12. 2020MoFlow: An Invertible Flow Model for Generating Molecular Graphscited by 185
13 more
  1. 2021GraphDF: A Discrete Flow Model for Molecular Graph Generationcited by 180
  2. 2019GraphNVP: An Invertible Flow Model for Generating Molecular Graphscited by 116
  3. 2019Graph Normalizing Flowscited by 104
  4. 2022SPECTRE: Spectral Conditioning Helps to Overcome the Expressivity Limits of One-shot Graph Generatorscited by 99
  5. 2020GraphGen: A Scalable Approach to Domain-agnostic Labeled Graph Generationcited by 66
  6. 2023Graph Generation with Diffusion Mixturecited by 55
  7. 2022Categorical SDEs with Simplex Diffusioncited by 42
  8. 2023Efficient and Scalable Graph Generation through Iterative Local Expansioncited by 36
  9. 2023Fast Sampling via Discrete Non-Markov Diffusion Models with Predetermined Transition Timecited by 20
  10. 2023Discrete Graph Auto-Encodercited by 10
  11. 2024GLAD: Improving Latent Graph Generative Modeling with Simple Quantizationcited by 8
  12. 2025Non-Markovian Discrete Diffusion with Causal Language Modelscited by 5
  13. 2022Various proofs of the Fundamental Theorem of Markov Chainscited by 4

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 2.

2 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026Efficient Graph Generation via Direct Prediction and Flow Matching
  2. 2025Is Noise Conditioning Necessary? A Unified Theory of Unconditional Graph Diffusion Models
  3. 2026When Edge Independence Fails: Joint Graph Diffusion with Latent Sociability Priors
  4. 2023SaGess: Sampling Graph Denoising Diffusion Model for Scalable Graph Generation
  5. 2024Cometh: A continuous-time discrete-state graph diffusion model
  6. 2024Unified Discrete Diffusion for Categorical Data
  7. 2024IFH: a Diffusion Framework for Flexible Design of Graph Generative Models
  8. 2025Deterministic Discrete Denoising