On learning higher-order cumulants in diffusion models

To analyse how diffusion models learn correlations beyond Gaussian ones, we study the behaviour of higher-order cumulants, or connected n -point functions, under both the forward and backward process. We derive explicit expressions for the moment- and cumulant-generating functionals, in terms of the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gert Aarts, Diaa E Habibi, Lingxiao Wang, Kai Zhou
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2025-01-01
Series:Machine Learning: Science and Technology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/2632-2153/adc53a
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:To analyse how diffusion models learn correlations beyond Gaussian ones, we study the behaviour of higher-order cumulants, or connected n -point functions, under both the forward and backward process. We derive explicit expressions for the moment- and cumulant-generating functionals, in terms of the distribution of the initial data and properties of forward process. It is shown analytically that during the forward process higher-order cumulants are conserved in models without a drift, such as the variance-expanding scheme, and that therefore the endpoint of the forward process maintains nontrivial correlations. We demonstrate that since these correlations are encoded in the score function, higher-order cumulants are learnt in the backward process, also when starting from a normal prior. We confirm our analytical results in an exactly solvable toy model with nonzero cumulants and in scalar lattice field theory.
ISSN:2632-2153