Optimal transport: Thermodynamics, biological information processing and generative models

This is a joint seminar co-hosted by Institute for Physics of Intelligence (iπ), UTokyo, and the Venue is #1042,10F of Science Bldg.1

Optimal transport theory is a useful theoretical framework for geometrically characterizing the distance between probability distributions.
It is not only used in recent research on generative models but has also been applied to detect information-processing capabilities in biological systems from a statistical perspective, and to discuss thermodynamic efficiency. In this seminar, I will begin with an introduction to optimal transport theory, and also discuss our research on its various applications.

More specifically, I will discuss the following topics: 1) The problem of minimizing entropy production within a finite time and its experimental testing. 2) The application of optimal transport to the training of generative models, specifically diffusion models, and their optimal protocols. 3) Quantifying information processing performance using optimal transport in biological signal transduction.