arXiv:2605.22586cs.LGcs.CL2026-05综述

用微分方程统一解释扩散模型的数学原理,打通理论与实践的桥梁。

A Tutorial on Diffusion Theory: From Differential Equations to Diffusion Models

论文配图:A Tutorial on Diffusion Theory: From Differential Equations to Diffusion Models
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 从噪声过程出发,推导出生成所需的反向SDE与概率流ODE
  • 揭示得分匹配等价于噪声预测的去噪目标,统一多种扩散算法
  • 适合想理解扩散模型底层机制的研究者与工程师

扩散模型已成为生成建模的主流框架,但其数学基础常分散在概率扩散模型、得分模型、随机微分方程和数值采样方法中。本文从微分方程视角出发,以条件高斯加噪过程为起点,推导出常微分方程(ODE)与随机微分方程(SDE)表示,进而得到对应的前向边际动态,并导出实现生成的反向SDE与概率流ODE。文中阐明反向采样中的核心未知量是边际得分,解释在噪声预测参数化下得分匹配如何成为标准去噪目标,并讨论实际反向采样与引导策略。进一步将DDPM、DDIM、流匹配与得分型SDE纳入统一框架,最后介绍连续嵌入空间中的扩散语言模型及离散掩码标记扩散的简要讨论。本教程旨在连接扩散过程的分析基础与基于此构建的现代生成算法。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Diffusion models have emerged as a dominant framework for generative modeling, but their mathematical foundations are often presented separately through diffusion probabilistic models, score-based modeling, stochastic differential equations, and numerical sampling methods. We write this tutorial to provide a unified and self-contained account of these viewpoints from the perspective of differential equations. Starting from a conditional Gaussian noising process, we derive ordinary differential equation (ODE) and stochastic differential equation (SDE) representations, pass to the corresponding marginal forward dynamics, and then obtain the reverse-time SDE and probability-flow ODE that make generation possible. We show that the central unknown quantity in reverse sampling is the marginal score, explain how score matching becomes the standard denoising objective under a noise-prediction parameterization, and discuss practical reverse-time sampling and guidance. We further place DDPM, DDIM, flow matching, and score-based SDEs in a common framework, and conclude with diffusion language models in continuous embedding space together with a brief discussion of discrete masked-token diffusion. The tutorial is intended as a bridge between the analytical foundations of diffusion processes and the modern generative algorithms built upon them.

扩散模型微分方程生成模型理论基础

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