揭示扩散采样器偏差与不稳定的根源,给出可计算的修正方法。
Diffusion-Based Posterior Sampling: A Feynman-Kac Analysis of Bias and Stability

- 构建连接后验与标准正态的代理路径,量化采样偏差。
- 发现低温度下采样不稳定源于前向欧拉积分误差,提出修正机制。
- 适用于需要高精度逆问题求解的研究者,如科学计算与生成建模。
基于扩散的后验采样器利用预训练扩散先验从测量或奖励条件后验中采样,广泛应用于逆问题求解。然而其理论行为仍不清晰:即使先验得分精确,输出仍存在偏差,且在低温条件下离散化可能不稳定。本文通过引入一条连接真实后验与标准高斯的可处理代理路径,比较其与采样路径的差异,刻画了偏差。该密度比满足一个抛物型偏微分方程,其反应项度量累积偏差。借助费曼-卡克斯表示,将径道-尼科迪姆修正表达为显式路径期望,揭示哪些后验区域被过采样或欠采样。该框架应用于DPS与STSL两类采样器。对DPS,修正为耦合数据条件协方差与奖励曲率的奥恩斯坦-乌伦贝克路径期望,揭示采样偏差位置;对STSL,重新解释为辅助漂移项,引导轨迹进入低不确定性区域,抑制空间变化的反应项。最后,分析了早期引导停止现象——一种常见于低温不稳定的缓解策略,源自向量场前向欧拉积分。上述结果澄清了采样偏差机制,解释现有修正手段,并指导稳定变体设计。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Diffusion-based posterior samplers use pretrained diffusion priors to sample from measurement- or reward-conditioned posteriors, and are widely used for inverse problems. Yet their theoretical behavior remains poorly understood: even with exact prior scores, their outputs are biased, and in low-temperature regimes their discretizations can become unstable. We characterize this bias by introducing a tractable surrogate path connecting the true posterior to a standard Gaussian and comparing it to the sampler's path. Their density ratio satisfies a parabolic PDE whose reaction term measures the accumulated bias. A Feynman-Kac representation then expresses the Radon-Nikodym correction as an explicit path expectation, identifying which posterior regions are over- or under-sampled. We apply this framework to DPS and STSL, a related sampler. For DPS, the correction is an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck path expectation coupling the data conditional covariance with the reward curvature, revealing where DPS over- or under-samples. Next, we reinterpret STSL as an auxiliary drift that steers trajectories toward low-uncertainty regions, flattening the spatially varying part of the DPS reaction term. Finally, we characterize early guidance-stopping, a common mitigation for low-temperature instabilities caused by forward-Euler integration of the vector field. Together, these results clarify sampler bias, explain existing correctives, and guide stable variant designs.
Thank you to arXiv for use of its open access interoperability. PaperDance 不是 arXiv 官方产品;中文卡片由大模型生成,请以原文为准。