Convergence properties of Markov models for image generation with applications to spin-flip dynamics and to diffusion processes

Abstract: In the field of Markov models for image generation, the main idea is to learn how non-trivial images are gradually destroyed by a trivial forward Markov dynamics over the large time window $[0,t]$ converging towards pure noise for $t \to + \infty$, and to implement the non-trivial backward time-dependent Markov dynamics over the same time window $[0,t]$ starting from pure noise at $t$ in order to generate new images at time $0$. The goal of the present paper is to analyze the convergence properties of this reconstructive backward dynamics as a function of the time $t$ using the spectral properties of the trivial continuous-time forward dynamics for the $N$ pixels $n=1,..,N$. The general framework is applied to two cases : (i) when each pixel $n$ has only two states $S_n=\pm 1$ with Markov jumps between them; (ii) when each pixel $n$ is characterized by a continuous variable $x_n$ that diffuses on an interval $]x_-,x_+[$ that can be either finite or infinite.