Exact Global MCMC with Denoising Diffusion
Read the original on arXiv Machine Learning →The Flow has not summarised this story yet — read it at arXiv Machine Learning.
The Flow has not summarised this story yet — read it at arXiv Machine Learning.
The paper introduces a learning-based approach to replace the MCMC step in split-Gibbs diffusion posterior sampling. By reformulating both Gibbs updates as Gaussian denoising problems, the method uses ODE diffusion for the prior step with a pretrained denoiser and a lightweight deep-unfolded network for the likelihood step. Experiments on nonlinear phase retrieval show that this alternative reduces likelihood-update cost while maintaining effectiveness compared to MCMC-based split Gibbs.
The paper introduces Diffusion Waltz, an MCMC algorithm that uses SDEdit-style noising and denoising as a proposal and corrects it with Metropolis-Hastings to achieve exact posterior sampling without evaluating the prior. It also incorporates observations into the proposal via a gradient‑free ensemble Kalman update while maintaining exactness. In experiments on a non‑differentiable Navier‑Stokes initial‑condition recovery problem, Diffusion Waltz outperforms existing baselines across various noise and nonlinearity regimes.
The paper introduces a new Markov chain Monte Carlo method that samples from multimodal distributions by interpolating along the diffusion path of a noising diffusion process, preserving mode weights and improving mixing. It proposes a Metropolis-adjusted diffusion path (MAD-Path) sampler that corrects for bias from approximate score estimates and discretization errors, ensuring the target distribution remains invariant. Experiments on Bayesian posteriors demonstrate that MAD-Path outperforms tempering-based MCMC and unadjusted diffusion samplers in global exploration and accurate mode-weight estimation.
The paper introduces RED-KLwSGS, a new posterior sampling method for Bayesian imaging inverse problems that combines exact Gaussian updates for the data variable with underdamped (kinetic) Langevin diffusion for the auxiliary variable, driven by a one‑shot denoising score. It achieves the same per‑iteration cost as existing Langevin‑within‑SGS samplers while providing non‑asymptotic Wasserstein‑2 convergence guarantees for strongly log‑concave priors. A further variant, Joint-RED-KLwSGS, applies kinetic Langevin diffusion to both variables, and experiments using denoising diffusion probabilistic models on FFHQ and ImageNet demonstrate faster convergence and high‑quality image reconstruction.
The paper investigates training diffusion models to sample from distributions defined by unnormalized densities or energy functions. It benchmarks various diffusion-structured inference techniques, including simulation-based variational methods and off-policy approaches such as continuous generative flow networks, highlighting their relative strengths and challenging some prior claims. Additionally, the authors introduce a new exploration strategy for off-policy methods that employs local search in the target space with a replay buffer, demonstrating improved sample quality across multiple target distributions.
arXiv:2609.14596v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Training-free diffusion inverse solvers typically choose between local measurement guidance and costly clean-space posterior updates. Independent poste...