mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Information-Geometric Forward Policy Training in GFlowNets

arXiv 2608.03967 ↗First posted 4 Aug 2026stat.ML cs.LGcited by 1

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Abstract (arXiv)

Generative Flow Networks (GFlowNets) have emerged as a flexible framework for amortised inference over discrete and mixed discrete-continuous objects, requiring only an unnormalised target density specified through a reward. In this work, we formulate forward-policy training in GFlowNets through the information geometry of the induced trajectory sampler. Treating the forward policy as an induced trajectory sampler, we show that its intrinsic first-order geometry is given by the Fisher-Rao metric of the trajectory family, and that the associated natural gradient provides the canonical local update whenever the corresponding Fisher information is computable or accurately approximable. We derive an exact decomposition of the trajectory Fisher into per-step conditional second moments, which clarifies when temporal score interactions vanish and when dense couplings remain under shared parameterisation. This leads to three computational regimes: settings with tractable exact Fisher information, settings where Monte Carlo estimators of the expected Fisher are sufficient, and structure-exploitable settings in which target locality or factorisation yields accurate approximations of the Fisher expectation. In the latter case, graphical-model tools such as exact marginalisation, separator methods, and belief propagation provide principled surrogates for natural-gradient updates. The resulting framework turns target structure into optimisation geometry and yields a tractable route to structure-aware forward-policy training in GFlowNets. We illustrate the framework empirically through examples comparing convergence and exploration behaviour under Riemannian and Euclidean optimisation.

Key facts. Cited by 1 paper in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 25 of its 32 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 4 Aug 2026.

Builds on

25 of 32 references.

References · 25

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13 more
  1. 2023A theory of continuous generative flow networkscited by 101
  2. 2023Better Training of GFlowNets with Local Credit and Incomplete Trajectoriescited by 85
  3. 2023Towards Understanding and Improving GFlowNet Trainingcited by 75
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  5. 2013Learning Gaussian Networkscited by 62
  6. 2024Categorical Flow Matching on Statistical Manifoldscited by 47
  7. 2023GFlowNet-EM for learning compositional latent variable modelscited by 40
  8. 2023Learning Energy Decompositions for Partial Inference of GFlowNetscited by 24
  9. 2024Adaptive teachers for amortized samplerscited by 23
  10. 2024AdaFisher: Adaptive Second Order Optimization via Fisher Informationcited by 14
  11. 2023Delta-AI: Local objectives for amortized inference in sparse graphical modelscited by 7
  12. 2025Boosted GFlowNets: Improving Exploration via Sequential Learningcited by 4
  13. 2026Avoid What You Know: Divergent Trajectory Balance for GFlowNetscited by 4

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