# Unifying Generative Models with Path Integrals

> Source: <https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.12438>
> Published: 2026-08-14 04:00:00+00:00

arXiv:2608.12438v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: We formulate generative modeling as a path integral in which flow-based, diffusion-based, variational, and adversarial models arise as different evaluation principles for a single master action. Its Martin-Siggia-Rose-Janssen-de~Dominicis (MSRJD) form separates free from interacting probability flows and opens them to diagrammatic perturbation theory. The expansion yields a one-loop correction to deterministic samplers at no stochastic-sampling cost, which we validate on solvable and nonlinear drifts, where it reduces a 53 % tree-level error to 1.6 %. Imperfect learned scores enter as insertions and yield a response-weighted score-matching objective, and symmetry-equivariant drift design becomes an operator expansion with EFT power counting.