首次为引导扩散优化提供后悔值理论分析,揭示收敛机制。
Regret Analysis of Guided Diffusion for Black-Box Optimization over Structured Inputs

- 引入'质量提升'概念,分析最优设计概率增益
- 证明有限预算下指数收敛与多项式加速可同源解释
- 提供可验证的采样器构造与搜索指数诊断方法
引导扩散黑箱优化(BO)在分子、晶体等结构化设计问题中表现出强劲的实证性能,但其后悔行为尚不明确。现有BO后悔分析通常依赖最大信息增益、非预训练代理模型或精确获取最大化——这些假设在现代扩散-BO流程中失效,因预训练扩散模型作为有效结构先验,且获取最大化被替换为对天文规模离散空间的近似采样。本文提出首个基于证书的期望简单后悔框架,避免最大信息增益界、RKHS假设和精确获取最大化。核心量为“质量提升”:相对于预训练生成器,近优设计所获概率质量的增长。该视角解释了为何指数级有限预算收敛与多项式加速可由同一机制产生。我们还给出从有限候选池估计搜索指数的实用诊断方法,以及一种提案-修正重采样构造,实现完全可验证的采样实例。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Guided-diffusion black-box optimization (BO) has shown strong empirical performance on structured design problems such as molecules and crystals, but its regret behavior remains poorly understood. Existing BO regret analyses typically rely on maximum information gain, non-pretrained surrogate models, or exact acquisition maximization -- assumptions that break down in modern diffusion -- BO pipelines, where pretrained diffusion models serve as powerful priors over valid structures and acquisition maximization is replaced by approximate sampling over astronomically large discrete spaces. We develop a first certificate-based expected simple-regret framework for guided-diffusion BO that avoids maximum-information-gain bounds, RKHS assumptions, and exact acquisition maximization. The central quantity in our analysis is mass lift: the increase in probability mass assigned to near-optimal designs relative to the pretrained generator. This view explains how exponential-looking finite-budget convergence and polynomial acceleration can all arise from the same mechanism. We also give practical diagnostics for estimating search exponents from finite candidate pools and a proposal-corrected resampling construction that provides a fully certified sampler instance.
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