递归训练扩散模型会逐渐偏离真实数据分布,本文揭示其收敛极限并提出改进方法。
Recursively Trained Diffusion Models: Limiting Collapse Distribution and Spectral Characterization

- 发现递归训练收敛到一个可解析的极限分布,由无限个高斯平滑版本组成
- 证明极限分布中高频结构被强烈抑制,相当于低通滤波器效应
- 提出渐进截断策略,能有效防止误差累积,适合长期迭代生成任务
在生成模型的递归训练中,即使得分估计精确且采样无误,由于反向扩散过程需提前终止以保证数值稳定,仍会导致模型逐步偏离真实数据分布。本文证明该递归过程几何收敛至唯一极限分布,其可表示为数据分布经无限次高斯平滑后的混合体。通过赫尔米特谱分解发现,递归训练具有低通滤波特性:高阶模式(精细非高斯结构)衰减远快于低阶模式。由此提出渐进截断调度策略,即每轮训练逐步缩短截断时间;理论证明,只要截断时间趋于零,即可完全消除递归误差累积。此外,在存在离散化与得分估计误差的情况下,学习分布仍位于理想极限的Wasserstein-2球内,且高阶误差收缩更快。实验验证了该理论在合成高斯混合与CIFAR-10上的有效性。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Recursive training of generative models on their own outputs can lead to model collapse, a compounding drift away from the true data distribution. Existing theoretical works bound finite-round error accumulation in the context of diffusion models, but two questions remain open:~what distribution does the recursion converge to, and how fast? We answer both, isolating a mechanism distinct from imperfect learning: even with perfect score estimation and exact sampling, the early stopping of the reverse diffusion (required for numerical stability) drives a progressive drift away from the data distribution. We prove that this recursion converges geometrically to a unique limiting distribution, which admits a closed-form characterization as an infinite mixture of increasingly Gaussian-smoothed versions of the data distribution. A Hermite spectral decomposition of this limit reveals that recursive training acts as a low-pass filter: higher-order modes, which encode fine non-Gaussian structure, are attenuated much more strongly than coarse modes. This spectral picture motivates annealed truncation schedules that progressively shrink truncation times across retraining rounds; we prove that any schedule converging to $0$ asymptotically eliminates recursive compounding. Finally, we show our idealized characterization is robust: in the presence of discretization and score estimation errors, the learned distribution remains in a Wasserstein-2 ball around the ideal limit, with mode-dependent contraction rates that contract high-order errors faster than low-order ones. We validate the theory on synthetic Gaussian mixtures and CIFAR-10.
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