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Intrinsic Wasserstein Rates for Score-Based Generative Models on Smooth Manifolds

Machine Learning 2026-05-18 v1 Machine Learning

Abstract

Score-based generative models are trained in high-dimensional ambient spaces, yet many data distributions are supported on low-dimensional nonlinear structures. We prove that, for compact dd-dimensional smooth manifolds M[0,1]D\mathcal{M} \subset [0,1]^D with d>2d > 2 and β\beta-H\"older densities strictly positive on M\mathcal{M}, a variance-preserving SGM estimator attains the intrinsic Wasserstein--1 sample exponent O~(DOβ(d)n(β+1)/(d+2β))\tilde{\mathcal{O}}(D^{\mathcal{O}_\beta(d)}n^{-(\beta+1)/(d+2\beta)}), up to logarithmic factors and explicit geometry and density factors. The full nonasymptotic bound explicitly isolates the finite-order geometry envelope, H\"older radius, density lower bound, ambient dependence, and finite-order correction terms. The analysis separates score approximation into a large-noise tangent-cell regime and a small-noise projection-centered, de-Gaussianized Laplace regime. The key technical ingredient is a ReLU implementation of nearest-projection coordinates via finite intrinsic anchors and Gauss--Newton iterations, rather than approximating the manifold projection as a black-box high-dimensional smooth map. Consequently, for families with polynomially controlled geometry and density lower bounds, the constructed score-network parameters have polynomial ambient dependence.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.15822,
  title  = {Intrinsic Wasserstein Rates for Score-Based Generative Models on Smooth Manifolds},
  author = {Guoji Fu and Taiji Suzuki and Wee Sun Lee and Atsushi Nitanda},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.15822},
  year   = {2026}
}