Drift Flow Matching
On the map: Diffusion models → Flow matching, time series and science
Abstract (arXiv)
Iterative generative models such as Flow Matching and Diffusion models have demonstrated strong test-time scaling behavior, where additional inference computation can improve generation quality. In contrast, Drift Models offer efficient one-step generation, but their direct generation paradigm limits such flexibility. In this work, we propose Drift Flow Matching (DFM), a framework that connects drifting generative modeling with flow-based iterative generation. DFM preserves the efficiency of direct transport maps while enabling generation to be refined through multiple inference steps when desired. This bridges the gap between one-step Drift Models and multi-step Flow Matching methods, and provides a novel generative paradigm that can adapt sampling computation to different quality--efficiency requirements. Extensive experiments across different tasks and datasets demonstrate the effectiveness and generality of the proposed framework.
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 59 of its 72 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 17 May 2026.
Builds on
59 of 72 references.
Closest ancestors · 14
Same direction, newest first
- 2026Transition Flow Matching16 Mar
- 2025Learning Straight Flows: Variational Flow Matching for Efficient Generation15 Nov
- 2025AlphaFlow: Understanding and Improving MeanFlow Models23 Oct
- 2025Constrained Diffusion for Protein Design with Hard Structural Constraints1 Oct
- 2025CMT: Mid-Training for Efficient Learning of Consistency, Mean Flow, and Flow Map Models29 Sep
- 2025Hierarchical Rectified Flow Matching with Mini-Batch Couplings17 Jul
- 2025Align Your Flow: Scaling Continuous-Time Flow Map Distillation17 Jun
- 2025Towards Hierarchical Rectified Flow24 Feb
- 2024Flow Matching Guide and Code9 Dec
- 2024Rectified Diffusion: Straightness Is Not Your Need in Rectified Flow9 Oct
- 2024Improving the Training of Rectified Flows30 May
- 2023Multisample Flow Matching: Straightening Flows with Minibatch Couplings28 Apr
2 more
Other references · 45
- 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 18,863
- 2020Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equationscited by 9,122
- 2021Masked Autoencoders Are Scalable Vision Learnerscited by 7,403
- 2018A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 6,013
- 2024Scaling Rectified Flow Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesiscited by 4,181
- 2022Elucidating the Design Space of Diffusion-Based Generative Modelscited by 3,045
- 2016Improved Techniques for Training GANscited by 2,970
- 2018UMAP: Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection for Dimension Reductioncited by 2,898
- 2023Diffusion Policy: Visuomotor Policy Learning via Action Diffusioncited by 2,838
- 2023Consistency Modelscited by 1,822
- 2022Building Normalizing Flows with Stochastic Interpolantscited by 995
- 2024SiT: Exploring Flow and Diffusion-based Generative Models with Scalable Interpolant Transformerscited by 737
33 more
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- 2024Representation Alignment for Generation: Training Diffusion Transformers Is Easier Than You Thinkcited by 703
- 2025Mean Flows for One-step Generative Modelingcited by 561
- 2023Consistency Trajectory Models: Learning Probability Flow ODE Trajectory of Diffusioncited by 459
- 2021Implicit Behavioral Cloningcited by 452
- 2023Improved Techniques for Training Consistency Modelscited by 439
- 2025Reconstruction vs. Generation: Taming Optimization Dilemma in Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 393
- 2024One Step Diffusion via Shortcut Modelscited by 391
- 2019Relay Policy Learning: Solving Long-Horizon Tasks via Imitation and Reinforcement Learningcited by 384
- 2022Behavior Transformers: Cloning k modes with one stonecited by 304
- 2025Diffusion Transformers with Representation Autoencoderscited by 295
- 2024Simplifying, Stabilizing and Scaling Continuous-Time Consistency Modelscited by 283
- 2025A General Framework for Inference-time Scaling and Steering of Diffusion Modelscited by 224
- 2020Adversarial Latent Autoencoderscited by 155
- 2024Consistency Models Made Easycited by 144
- 2026Generative Modeling via Driftingcited by 116
- 2025Inductive Moment Matchingcited by 113
- 2025Improved Mean Flows: On the Challenges of Fastforward Generative Modelscited by 110
- 2023Stochastic interpolants with data-dependent couplingscited by 100
- 2025Large Scale Diffusion Distillation via Score-Regularized Continuous-Time Consistencycited by 86
- 2023One-Step Diffusion Distillation via Deep Equilibrium Modelscited by 61
- 2026One-step Latent-free Image Generation with Pixel Mean Flowscited by 53
- 2024Diffusion Self-Distillation for Zero-Shot Customized Image Generationcited by 47
- 2025Reflect-DiT: Inference-Time Scaling for Text-to-Image Diffusion Transformers via In-Context Reflectioncited by 43
- 2025MP1: MeanFlow Tames Policy Learning in 1-step for Robotic Manipulationcited by 35
- 2026Sinkhorn-Drifting Generative Modelscited by 24
- 2025One-Step Generative Policies with Q-Learning: A Reformulation of MeanFlowcited by 18
- 2025VCT: Training Consistency Models with Variational Noise Couplingcited by 15
- 2025MeanAudio: Fast and Faithful Text-to-Audio Generation with Mean Flowscited by 14
- 2025Adversarial Flow Modelscited by 12
- 2025CAD-VAE: Leveraging Correlation-Aware Latents for Comprehensive Fair Disentanglementcited by 11
- 2025Beyond Editing Pairs: Fine-Grained Instructional Image Editing via Multi-Scale Learnable Regionscited by 7
- 2025Stochastic Interpolants via Conditional Dependent Couplingcited by 7
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 2.
2 papers.
- 2026Diffusion Subgoal Planning for Long-Horizon Offline Goal-Conditioned Reinforcement Learning28 Sep 2026
- 2026Posterior Flow Matching26 Sep 2026
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