Flows for Flows: Training Normalizing Flows Between Arbitrary Distributions with Maximum Likelihood Estimation

Abstract: Normalizing flows are constructed from a base distribution with a known density and a diffeomorphism with a tractable Jacobian. The base density of a normalizing flow can be parameterised by a different normalizing flow, thus allowing maps to be found between arbitrary distributions. We demonstrate and explore the utility of this approach and show it is particularly interesting in the case of conditional normalizing flows and for introducing optimal transport constraints on maps that are constructed using normalizing flows.