mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Joint Flow Matching for Generator-Consistent Classification

arXiv 2607.23946 ↗First posted 27 Jul 2026cs.LGcited by 0

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

Abstract (arXiv)

We introduce Joint Flow Matching (JFM), a training framework for continuous normalising flows over multiple variables. Standard flow matching transports variables from noise to data simultaneously, offering no natural mechanism for forward and reverse conditional inference from a shared joint model. JFM resolves this by assigning opposite roles to each variable at the temporal endpoints. We prove that JFM produces a consistent joint distribution where that forward or reverse integration are conditionals of the same joint. We explore this consistency in the context of joint classification and generation as the basis for interpretability in discriminative-generative models. We validate JFM on conditional datasets producing competitive accuracy with inherently well-calibrated confidence scores without post-hoc calibration, and classifier-consistent 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 43 of its 51 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 27 Jul 2026.

Builds on

43 of 51 references.

Closest ancestors · 10

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025The Generation Phases of Flow Matching: a Denoising Perspective28 Oct
  2. 2025Symmetrical Flow Matching: Unified Image Generation, Segmentation, and Classification with Score-Based Generative Models12 Jun
  3. 2025On the Closed-Form of Flow Matching: Generalization Does Not Arise from Target Stochasticity4 Jun
  4. 2024Flow Priors for Linear Inverse Problems via Iterative Corrupted Trajectory Matching29 May
  5. 2024Optimal Flow Matching: Learning Straight Trajectories in Just One Step19 Mar
  6. 2023Multisample Flow Matching: Straightening Flows with Minibatch Couplings28 Apr
  7. 2023Flow Matching on General Geometries7 Feb
  8. 2023Improving and generalizing flow-based generative models with minibatch optimal transport1 Feb
  9. 2022Flow Matching for Generative Modeling6 Oct
  10. 2022Flow Straight and Fast: Learning to Generate and Transfer Data with Rectified Flow7 Sep

Other references · 33

  1. 2017Attention Is All You Needcited by 59,932
  2. 2015Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognitioncited by 51,809
  3. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 20,851
  4. 2020Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equationscited by 8,964
  5. 2021Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesiscited by 8,185
  6. 2015Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamicscited by 7,005
  7. 2015Batch Normalization: Accelerating Deep Network Training by Reducing Internal Covariate Shiftcited by 6,979
  8. 2017A Unified Approach to Interpreting Model Predictionscited by 6,488
  9. 2022Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidancecited by 5,717
  10. 2018Neural Ordinary Differential Equationscited by 3,733
  11. 2017Axiomatic Attribution for Deep Networkscited by 3,350
  12. 2013Deep Inside Convolutional Networks: Visualising Image Classification Models and Saliency Mapscited by 2,348
21 more
  1. 2013Visualizing and Understanding Convolutional Networkscited by 2,278
  2. 2015Variational Inference with Normalizing Flowscited by 2,161
  3. 2016Density estimation using Real NVPcited by 2,029
  4. 2022Diffusion Models: A Comprehensive Survey of Methods and Applicationscited by 1,107
  5. 2016Improving Variational Inference with Inverse Autoregressive Flowcited by 636
  6. 2018FFJORD: Free-form Continuous Dynamics for Scalable Reversible Generative Modelscited by 584
  7. 2014Semi-Supervised Learning with Deep Generative Modelscited by 494
  8. 2023Your Diffusion Model is Secretly a Zero-Shot Classifiercited by 301
  9. 2021How to Train Your Energy-Based Modelscited by 271
  10. 2017VEEGAN: Reducing Mode Collapse in GANs using Implicit Variational Learningcited by 199
  11. 2019GANalyze: Toward Visual Definitions of Cognitive Image Propertiescited by 193
  12. 2023Generalization in diffusion models arises from geometry-adaptive harmonic representationscited by 179
  13. 2023Text-to-Image Diffusion Models are Zero-Shot Classifierscited by 140
  14. 2024PnP-Flow: Plug-and-Play Image Restoration with Flow Matchingcited by 92
  15. 2019VideoFlow: A Conditional Flow-Based Model for Stochastic Video Generationcited by 74
  16. 2020No MCMC for me: Amortized sampling for fast and stable training of energy-based modelscited by 64
  17. 2020Unpaired Image-to-Image Translation using Adversarial Consistency Losscited by 43
  18. 2024Towards a Mechanistic Explanation of Diffusion Model Generalizationcited by 42
  19. 2025STARFlow: Scaling Latent Normalizing Flows for High-resolution Image Synthesiscited by 31
  20. 2025Generalization through variance: how noise shapes inductive biases in diffusion modelscited by 23
  21. 2025STARFlow-V: End-to-End Video Generative Modeling with Normalizing Flowscited by 9

Built on by

Not cited yet.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026The Coupling Within: Flow Matching via Distilled Normalizing Flows
  2. 2026Difficulty-Calibrated Interpolation Paths for Conditional Flow Matching
  3. 2026Structured Coupling for Flow Matching
  4. 2025Carr'e du champ flow matching: better quality-generalisation tradeoff in generative models
  5. 2025Contrastive Flow Matching
  6. 2026Exploring and Exploiting Stability in Latent Flow Matching
  7. 2026Discriminative Flow Matching Via Local Generative Predictors
  8. 2025A Theoretical Analysis of Discrete Flow Matching Generative Models