# JLT: Clean-Latent Prediction in Latent Diffusion Transformers

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.27102 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.27102/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 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 33 of its 45 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 26 May 2026.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [Flow matching, time series and science](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/flow-matching-time-series-and-science/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 33)

- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.0575/) (2014)
- [DINOv2: Learning Robust Visual Features without Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.07193/) (2023)
- [Scalable Diffusion Models with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.09748/) (2022)
- [Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.12598/) (2022)
- [Flow Matching for Generative Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.02747/) (2022)
- [Scaling Rectified Flow Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.03206/) (2024)
- [Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09672/) (2021)
- [Flow Straight and Fast: Learning to Generate and Transfer Data with Rectified Flow](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.03003/) (2022)
- [Elucidating the Design Space of Diffusion-Based Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.00364/) (2022)
- [Improved Techniques for Training GANs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.03498/) (2016)
- [Beyond a Gaussian Denoiser: Residual Learning of Deep CNN for Image Denoising](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.03981/) (2016)
- [Qwen-Image Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.02324/) (2025)
- [Building Normalizing Flows with Stochastic Interpolants](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.15571/) (2022)
- [Stochastic Interpolants: A Unifying Framework for Flows and Diffusions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08797/) (2023)
- [DPM-Solver++: Fast Solver for Guided Sampling of Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.01095/) (2022)
- [SiT: Exploring Flow and Diffusion-based Generative Models with Scalable Interpolant Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.08740/) (2024)
- [Representation Alignment for Generation: Training Diffusion Transformers Is Easier Than You Think](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.06940/) (2024)
- [All are Worth Words: A ViT Backbone for Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.12152/) (2022)
- [The Intrinsic Dimension of Images and Its Impact on Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.08894/) (2021)
- [Understanding Diffusion Objectives as the ELBO with Simple Data Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.00848/) (2023)
- [Perception Prioritized Training of Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.00227/) (2022)
- [Diffusion Transformers with Representation Autoencoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.11690/) (2025)
- [MDTv2: Masked Diffusion Transformer is a Strong Image Synthesizer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.14389/) (2023)
- [Efficient Diffusion Training via Min-SNR Weighting Strategy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.09556/) (2023)
- [Generalized Denoising Auto-Encoders as Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1305.6663/) (2013)
- [DiffiT: Diffusion Vision Transformers for Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02139/) (2023)
- [Improved Baselines with Representation Autoencoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.18324/) (2026)
- [SRA 2: Variational Autoencoder Self-Representation Alignment for Efficient Diffusion Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.17830/) (2026)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [ProxyFormer: A Dual-Stream Proxy Architecture for Ultra-Long Context and High-Resolution Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.23463/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Flow samplers consume velocity, but the neural network can predict the clean endpoint and convert it to velocity through a fixed affine readout. We study this choice with JLT, a latent Transformer in a frozen variational autoencoder (VAE) representation. For squared error, the optimal clean and velocity predictors are algebraically equivalent; a finite Transformer assigns different computation to its learned output under the two interfaces. A local Gaussian analysis identifies a known residual response supplied by the readout and isotropic target variance added by velocity prediction. Measured FLUX.2 channel spectra support this geometric distinction: 90% of target variance occupies 83 of 128 clean directions versus 109 velocity directions. Under a matched velocity objective, clean prediction improves ImageNet FID-50K from 6.56 to 2.70 at Base scale and from 2.12 to 1.47 at Large scale, with lower FID at every measured Large checkpoint. Scaling clean prediction to 951M parameters reaches FID-50K 1.19 and IS 271.96. In addition, an objective ablation at Base scale shows that direct clean regression reaches FID-50K 2.38 without time-dependent error weighting. These results show how moving known computation outside the network changes learning under algebraically equivalent flow interfaces. Code: https://github.com/akatsuki-neo/JLT/blob/main/README.md