Related papers: { Euclidean, Metric, and Wasserstein } Gradient Fl…
This is the first of a series of papers devoted to a thorough analysis of the class of gradient flows in a metric space $(X,\mathsf{d})$ that can be characterized by Evolution Variational Inequalities. We present new results concerning the…
The sliced-Wasserstein flow is an evolution equation where a probability density evolves in time, advected by a velocity field computed as the average among directions in the unit sphere of the optimal transport displacements from its 1D…
We study optimization problems whereby the optimization variable is a probability measure. Since the probability space is not a vector space, many classical and powerful methods for optimization (e.g., gradients) are of little help. Thus,…
The theory of optimal transport of probability measures has wide-ranging applications across a number of different fields, including concentration of measure, machine learning, Markov chains, and economics. The generalisation of optimal…
We present a method to efficiently compute Wasserstein gradient flows. Our approach is based on a generalization of the back-and-forth method (BFM) introduced by Jacobs and L\'eger to solve optimal transport problems. We evolve the gradient…
This paper reviews different numerical methods for specific examples of Wasserstein gradient flows: we focus on nonlinear Fokker-Planck equations,but also discuss discretizations of the parabolic-elliptic Keller-Segel model and of the…
Sampling a probability distribution with an unknown normalization constant is a fundamental problem in computational science and engineering. This task may be cast as an optimization problem over all probability measures, and an initial…
Many applications in machine learning involve data represented as probability distributions. The emergence of such data requires radically novel techniques to design tractable gradient flows on probability distributions over this type of…
We revisit the variational characterization of diffusion as entropic gradient flux and provide for it a probabilistic interpretation based on stochastic calculus. It was shown by Jordan, Kinderlehrer, and Otto that, for diffusions of…
Hydrodynamics describes the evolution of macroscopic states in non--equilibrium thermodynamics. Following Onsager reciprocal relations, one can formulate a large class of hydrodynamic equations as gradient flows of free energies. In recent…
Wasserstein gradient flow (WGF) is a common method to perform optimization over the space of probability measures. While WGF is guaranteed to converge to a first-order stationary point, for nonconvex functionals the converged solution does…
Many tasks in machine learning and signal processing can be solved by minimizing a convex function of a measure. This includes sparse spikes deconvolution or training a neural network with a single hidden layer. For these problems, we study…
We introduce the problem of transporting vector-valued distributions. In this, a salient feature is that mass may flow between vectorial entries as well as across space (discrete or continuous). The theory relies on a first step taken to…
It is well known that nonlinear diffusion equations can be interpreted as a gradient flow in the space of probability measures equipped with the Euclidean Wasserstein distance. Under suitable convexity conditions on the nonlinearity, due to…
We prove the convergence of a Wasserstein gradient flow of a free energy in inhomogeneous media. Both the energy and media can depend on the spatial variable in a fast oscillatory manner. In particular, we show that the gradient-flow…
The Wasserstein space of probability measures is known for its intricate Riemannian structure, which underpins the Wasserstein geometry and enables gradient flow algorithms. However, the Wasserstein geometry may not be suitable for certain…
Flow-based models are powerful tools for designing probabilistic models with tractable density. This paper introduces Convex Potential Flows (CP-Flow), a natural and efficient parameterization of invertible models inspired by the optimal…
This paper is devoted to the investigation of gradient flows in asymmetric metric spaces (for example, irreversible Finsler manifolds and Minkowski normed spaces) by means of discrete approximation. We study basic properties of curves and…
The defining equation $(\ast):\ \dot \omega\_t=-F'(\omega\_t),$ of a gradient flow is kinetic in essence. This article explores some dynamical (rather than kinetic) features of gradient flows (i) by embedding equation $(\ast)$ into the…
Wasserstein distance (WD) and the associated optimal transport plan have been proven useful in many applications where probability measures are at stake. In this paper, we propose a new proxy of the squared WD, coined min-SWGG, that is…