Distributional Shrinkage II: Higher-Order Scores Encode Brenier Map
Abstract
Consider the additive Gaussian model , where is an unknown signal, is independent of , and is known. Let denote the law of . We construct a hierarchy of denoisers that depend only on higher-order score functions , , of and require no knowledge of the law . The -th order denoiser involves scores up to order and satisfies for every ; in the limit, recovers the monotone optimal transport map (Brenier map) pushing onto . We provide a complete characterization of the combinatorial structure governing this hierarchy through partial Bell polynomial recursions, making precise how higher-order score functions encode the Brenier map. We further establish rates of convergence for estimating these scores from i.i.d.\ draws from under two complementary strategies: (i) plug-in kernel density estimation, and (ii) higher-order score matching. The construction reveals a precise interplay among higher-order Fisher-type information, optimal transport, and the combinatorics of integer partitions.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2512.09295,
title = {Distributional Shrinkage II: Higher-Order Scores Encode Brenier Map},
author = {Tengyuan Liang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.09295},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
25 pages