mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

NullFlow: One-Step Generative Reconstruction

arXiv 2606.22696 ↗First posted 21 Jun 2026cs.CVcited by 2

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Abstract (arXiv)

We propose NullFlow, a principled framework for one-step generative image reconstruction. Our key idea is to confine the generative flow to a measurement-consistent subspace. Because the flow never leaves this subspace, NullFlow needs no separate data-fidelity corrections, unlike existing solvers. NullFlow samples in a single network evaluation by learning the flow's average velocity, avoiding the step-by-step integration of traditional flow matching methods. We prove that the average velocity of this constrained flow yields a training objective whose global minimizer is a one-step posterior sampler. We show on image inpainting that NullFlow matches state-of-the-art diffusion solvers while cutting inference from hundreds of network evaluations to one.

Key facts. Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 31 of its 33 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 21 Jun 2026.

Builds on

31 of 33 references.

References · 31

  1. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 20,851
  2. 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 18,694
  3. 2018The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metriccited by 11,029
  4. 2022Flow Matching for Generative Modelingcited by 5,426
  5. 2022Flow Straight and Fast: Learning to Generate and Transfer Data with Rectified Flowcited by 3,550
  6. 2022Diffusion Posterior Sampling for General Noisy Inverse Problemscited by 1,375
  7. 2016Beyond a Gaussian Denoiser: Residual Learning of Deep CNN for Image Denoisingcited by 1,352
  8. 2014Image Super-Resolution Using Deep Convolutional Networkscited by 1,218
  9. 2022Building Normalizing Flows with Stochastic Interpolantscited by 964
  10. 2022Denoising Diffusion Restoration Modelscited by 951
  11. 2023Stochastic Interpolants: A Unifying Framework for Flows and Diffusionscited by 897
  12. 2023ConvNeXt V2: Co-designing and Scaling ConvNets with Masked Autoencoderscited by 703
19 more
  1. 2022Zero-Shot Image Restoration Using Denoising Diffusion Null-Space Modelcited by 574
  2. 2025Mean Flows for One-step Generative Modelingcited by 524
  3. 2020Plug-and-Play Image Restoration with Deep Denoiser Priorcited by 467
  4. 2016Deep Convolutional Neural Network for Inverse Problems in Imagingcited by 431
  5. 2023Flow Matching on General Geometriescited by 260
  6. 2024A Survey on Diffusion Models for Inverse Problemscited by 173
  7. 2024D-Flow: Differentiating through Flows for Controlled Generationcited by 115
  8. 2025Improved Mean Flows: On the Challenges of Fastforward Generative Modelscited by 102
  9. 2023Stochastic interpolants with data-dependent couplingscited by 94
  10. 2024PnP-Flow: Plug-and-Play Image Restoration with Flow Matchingcited by 92
  11. 2022DOLCE: A Model-Based Probabilistic Diffusion Framework for Limited-Angle CT Reconstructioncited by 73
  12. 2023Training-free Linear Image Inverses via Flowscited by 70
  13. 2025FlowDPS: Flow-Driven Posterior Sampling for Inverse Problemscited by 65
  14. 2024Flow Priors for Linear Inverse Problems via Iterative Corrupted Trajectory Matchingcited by 50
  15. 2026One-step Latent-free Image Generation with Pixel Mean Flowscited by 49
  16. 2020Provable Convergence of Plug-and-Play Priors with MMSE denoiserscited by 39
  17. 2019Deep Decomposition Learning for Inverse Imaging Problemscited by 25
  18. 2025Flower: A Flow-Matching Solver for Inverse Problemscited by 23
  19. 2024Plug-and-Play image restoration with Stochastic deNOising REgularizationcited by 17

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 2.

2 papers.

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  1. 2025Solving Inverse Problems with FLAIR
  2. 2026One-Step Generative Modeling via Wasserstein Gradient Flows
  3. 2025Decoupled MeanFlow: Turning Flow Models into Flow Maps for Accelerated Sampling
  4. 2025Efficiency vs. Fidelity: A Comparative Analysis of Diffusion Probabilistic Models and Flow Matching on Low-Resource Hardware
  5. 2023Flow Matching in Latent Space
  6. 2025From Diffusion to One-Step Generation: A Comparative Study of Flow-Based Models with Application to Image Inpainting
  7. 2025SoFlow: Solution Flow Models for One-Step Generative Modeling
  8. 2026ODE-free Neural Flow Matching for One-Step Generative Modeling