mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Divergence-Suppressing Couplings for Rectified Flow

arXiv 2605.17733 ↗First posted 18 May 2026cs.AI cs.LGcited by 0

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

Abstract (arXiv)

The promise of Rectified Flow rests on producing self-generated couplings whose trajectories are straight, or nearly so. In practice, trajectories generated by the base flow model can bend and intertwine, and the resulting coupling inherits this distortion. In this paper, we identify that such trajectory entanglement is often associated with regions of nonzero divergence in the learned velocity field, where local expansion or contraction distorts trajectories and steers particles away from their ideal endpoints. We then propose divergence-suppressing couplings for Rectified Flow, an offline correction that attenuate the divergent component of the learned velocity during coupling generation. The correction is paid only once per coupling pair and amortized over training, so deployment runs plain Euler at identical wall-clock cost to standard Rectified Flow. Empirically, this offline modification yields consistent improvements on 2D synthetic benchmarks and on image generation.

Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Flow matching, time series and science, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 20 of its 24 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 18 May 2026.

Builds on

20 of 24 references.

Closest ancestors · 7

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2026Training-Free Refinement of Flow Matching with Divergence-based Sampling6 Apr
  2. 2026Improving Flow Matching by Aligning Flow Divergence31 Jan
  3. 2023SE(3)-Stochastic Flow Matching for Protein Backbone Generation3 Oct
  4. 2023InstaFlow: One Step is Enough for High-Quality Diffusion-Based Text-to-Image Generation12 Sep
  5. 2023Multisample Flow Matching: Straightening Flows with Minibatch Couplings28 Apr
  6. 2022Flow Matching for Generative Modeling6 Oct
  7. 2022Flow Straight and Fast: Learning to Generate and Transfer Data with Rectified Flow7 Sep

Other references · 13

  1. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 20,851
  2. 2020Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equationscited by 8,964
  3. 2015Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamicscited by 7,005
  4. 2024Scaling Rectified Flow Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesiscited by 4,094
  5. 2018Neural Ordinary Differential Equationscited by 3,733
  6. 2022DPM-Solver: A Fast ODE Solver for Diffusion Probabilistic Model Sampling in Around 10 Stepscited by 1,961
  7. 2023Consistency Modelscited by 1,778
  8. 2022Building Normalizing Flows with Stochastic Interpolantscited by 964
  9. 2023Stochastic Interpolants: A Unifying Framework for Flows and Diffusionscited by 897
  10. 2024Movie Gen: A Cast of Media Foundation Modelscited by 614
  11. 2018FFJORD: Free-form Continuous Dynamics for Scalable Reversible Generative Modelscited by 584
  12. 2022Fast Sampling of Diffusion Models with Exponential Integratorcited by 526
1 more
  1. 2023Voicebox: Text-Guided Multilingual Universal Speech Generation at Scalecited by 373

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  3. 2026Computational and Statistical Guarantees of the textitc-Rectified flow
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  5. 2026The Coupling Within: Flow Matching via Distilled Normalizing Flows
  6. 2026Look-Ahead and Look-Back Flows: Training-Free Image Generation with Trajectory Smoothing
  7. 2026Limit Points of Reflow with Minibatch Optimal Transport
  8. 2026The Velocity Deficit: Initial Energy Injection for Flow Matching