Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Generative modelling involves two complementary tasks: learning a probabilistic approximation of an unknown data distribution from observations, and designing a tractable mechanism for sampling from this approximation. We present a stochastic-analysis perspective on score-based generative models, connecting ideas from classical sampling theory, score estimation, and diffusion time reversal. We first explain how score functions link Langevin sampling with score matching, and how Gaussian smoothing leads to denoising score matching and multiscale sampling methods. We then emphasize the distinction between dynamics preserving a fixed distribution and dynamics transporting a prescribed family of marginals. This motivates a path-space treatment of diffusion time reversal. Finally, we connect the ideal reverse diffusion with practical generative algorithms.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Author: Strasman, Stanislas
Language: English
Subfield: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7221578194