The review explores how control theory, optimal transport, probabilistic inference, non‑equilibrium thermodynamics, and machine learning are interconnected through the optimization of free‑energy‑like functionals under dynamical or statistical constraints. It presents a conceptual thread linking these five fields and illustrates the ideas with applications in reinforcement learning, variational inference, and generative modeling. The article is written for readers without prior familiarity, beginning with physics principles.
arXiv:2602. 03670v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Equilibrium Propagation (EP) is a physics-inspired learning algorithm that uses stationary states of a dynamical system both for inference and learning.
The paper introduces a geometric framework for reinforcement learning that treats policies as mappings into the Wasserstein space of action probabilities. It establishes a Riemannian structure induced by stationary distributions, defines the tangent space of policies, and characterizes geodesics while addressing measurability concerns. The authors formulate a general RL optimization problem, construct a gradient flow via Otto's calculus, compute the gradient and Hessian of the energy, and demonstrate the approach with numerical examples for low‑dimensional problems and neural‑network‑parameterized policies for high‑dimensional settings.
arXiv:2606. 30064v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We introduce a data-driven probabilistic framework for learning systems based on Gibbs measures on hierarchical structures.
We introduce a data-driven probabilistic framework for learning systems based on Gibbs measures on hierarchical structures. Unlike standard empirical risk minimization, where a dataset is used to identify a single optimal parameter, our approach transforms the empirical loss function into an interaction potential defining an energy-based model.
arXiv:2601. 21284v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Diffusion models have emerged as powerful generative tools for modeling complex data distributions, yet their purely data-driven nature limits applicability in engineering and scientific problems where physical laws must be respected.
arXiv:2608. 02844v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: We develop a class of diffusion-based stochastic particle optimisation methods for loss functions with intractable gradients.
arXiv:2509.26364v3 Announce Type: replace Abstract: The Schr\"odinger bridge problem is concerned with finding a stochastic dynamical system bridging two marginal distributions that minimises a certa...
The article reviews modern machine learning techniques for estimating the committor and related kinetic statistics from molecular dynamics simulations. It emphasizes self‑supervised methods that solve the underlying dynamical equations instead of relying on labeled data, and unifies various approaches—generator‑based PDEs, variational principles, Markov state models, dynamical Galerkin approximation, and neural networks—under a common operator framework. The review also discusses practical guidance for handling non‑Markovian effects, sampling strategies, and outlines future research directions such as connections to reinforcement learning and generative modeling.
The paper introduces a new optimal transport framework that uses the Barron energy—an intrinsic neural network complexity measure—instead of the traditional kinetic energy. By modeling transport as deep residual networks that map a reference distribution to a target distribution, the authors define a new metric on probability measures and analyze its properties for generative modeling. They demonstrate that diffusion generative models are suboptimal in this Barron geometry and explore how adaptivity can improve alternative generative approaches.
arXiv:2603. 11249v4 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Accurate prediction of phase equilibria remains a central challenge in chemical engineering.
arXiv:2608. 12624v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Structure-preserving machine learning embeds physical structure directly into model architectures, yet uncertainty quantification (UQ) for such hard-constrained models remains limited because standard UQ methods may violate the encoded admissibility conditions, require architectural modifications, or impose substantial computational costs.
arXiv:2505. 06589v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Modern machine learning repeatedly manipulates probability measures: empirical datasets, generated samples, latent distributions, class-conditional laws, particle systems, weights of wide networks and attention patterns.