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Feb 2

On the Road to Clarity: Exploring Explainable AI for World Models in a Driver Assistance System

In Autonomous Driving (AD) transparency and safety are paramount, as mistakes are costly. However, neural networks used in AD systems are generally considered black boxes. As a countermeasure, we have methods of explainable AI (XAI), such as feature relevance estimation and dimensionality reduction. Coarse graining techniques can also help reduce dimensionality and find interpretable global patterns. A specific coarse graining method is Renormalization Groups from statistical physics. It has previously been applied to Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBMs) to interpret unsupervised learning. We refine this technique by building a transparent backbone model for convolutional variational autoencoders (VAE) that allows mapping latent values to input features and has performance comparable to trained black box VAEs. Moreover, we propose a custom feature map visualization technique to analyze the internal convolutional layers in the VAE to explain internal causes of poor reconstruction that may lead to dangerous traffic scenarios in AD applications. In a second key contribution, we propose explanation and evaluation techniques for the internal dynamics and feature relevance of prediction networks. We test a long short-term memory (LSTM) network in the computer vision domain to evaluate the predictability and in future applications potentially safety of prediction models. We showcase our methods by analyzing a VAE-LSTM world model that predicts pedestrian perception in an urban traffic situation.

  • 6 authors
·
Apr 26, 2024

Causality and Renormalization in Finite-Time-Path Out-of-Equilibrium φ^3 QFT

Our aim is to contribute to quantum field theory (QFT) formalisms useful for descriptions of short time phenomena, dominant especially in heavy ion collisions. We formulate out-of-equilibrium QFT within the finite-time-path formalism (FTP) and renormalization theory (RT). The potential conflict of FTP and RT is investigated in g phi^3 QFT, by using the retarded/advanced (R/A) basis of Green functions and dimensional renormalization (DR). For example, vertices immediately after (in time) divergent self-energy loops do not conserve energy, as integrals diverge. We "repair" them, while keeping d<4, to obtain energy conservation at those vertices. Already in the S-matrix theory, the renormalized, finite part of Feynman self-energy Sigma_{F}(p_0) does not vanish when |p_0|rightarrowinfty and cannot be split to retarded and advanced parts. In the Glaser--Epstein approach, the causality is repaired in the composite object G_F(p_0)Sigma_{F}(p_0). In the FTP approach, after repairing the vertices, the corresponding composite objects are G_R(p_0)Sigma_{R}(p_0) and Sigma_{A}(p_0)G_A(p_0). In the limit drightarrow 4, one obtains causal QFT. The tadpole contribution splits into diverging and finite parts. The diverging, constant component is eliminated by the renormalization condition langle 0|phi|0rangle =0 of the S-matrix theory. The finite, oscillating energy-nonconserving tadpole contributions vanish in the limit trightarrow infty .

  • 2 authors
·
Dec 31, 2019

Replica symmetry breaking in dense neural networks

Understanding the glassy nature of neural networks is pivotal both for theoretical and computational advances in Machine Learning and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence. Keeping the focus on dense associative Hebbian neural networks, the purpose of this paper is two-fold: at first we develop rigorous mathematical approaches to address properly a statistical mechanical picture of the phenomenon of {\em replica symmetry breaking} (RSB) in these networks, then -- deepening results stemmed via these routes -- we aim to inspect the {\em glassiness} that they hide. In particular, regarding the methodology, we provide two techniques: the former is an adaptation of the transport PDE to the case, while the latter is an extension of Guerra's interpolation breakthrough. Beyond coherence among the results, either in replica symmetric and in the one-step replica symmetry breaking level of description, we prove the Gardner's picture and we identify the maximal storage capacity by a ground-state analysis in the Baldi-Venkatesh high-storage regime. In the second part of the paper we investigate the glassy structure of these networks: in contrast with the replica symmetric scenario (RS), RSB actually stabilizes the spin-glass phase. We report huge differences w.r.t. the standard pairwise Hopfield limit: in particular, it is known that it is possible to express the free energy of the Hopfield neural network as a linear combination of the free energies of an hard spin glass (i.e. the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model) and a soft spin glass (the Gaussian or "spherical" model). This is no longer true when interactions are more than pairwise (whatever the level of description, RS or RSB): for dense networks solely the free energy of the hard spin glass survives, proving a huge diversity in the underlying glassiness of associative neural networks.

  • 4 authors
·
Nov 25, 2021

Domain walls in the scaling regime: Equal Time Correlator and Gravitational Waves

Domain walls are topological defects that may have formed in the early Universe through the spontaneous breakdown of discrete symmetries, and can be a strong source of gravitational waves (GWs). We perform 3D lattice field theory simulations with CosmoLattice, considering grid sizes N = 1250, 2048 and 4096, to study the dynamics of the domain wall network and its GW signatures. We first analyze how the network approaches the scaling regime with a constant O(1) number of domain walls per Hubble volume, including setups with a large initial number of domains as expected in realistic scenarios, and find that scaling is always reached in a few Hubble times after the network formation. To better understand the properties of the scaling regime, we then numerically extract the Equal Time Correlator (ETC) of the energy-momentum tensor of the network, thus determining its characteristic shape for the case of domain walls, and verifying explicitly its functional dependence as predicted by scaling arguments. The ETC can be further extended to the Unequal Time Correlator (UTC) controlling the GW emission by making assumptions on the coherence of the source. By comparison with the actual GW spectrum evaluated by CosmoLattice, we are then able to infer the degree of coherence of the domain wall network. Finally, by performing numerical simulations in different background cosmologies, e.g. radiation domination and kination, we find evidence for a universal ETC at subhorizon scales and hence a universal shape of the GW spectrum in the UV, while the expansion history of the Universe may instead be determined by the IR features of the GW spectrum.

  • 4 authors
·
Nov 20, 2025

Simulating 2+1D Lattice Quantum Electrodynamics at Finite Density with Neural Flow Wavefunctions

We present a neural flow wavefunction, Gauge-Fermion FlowNet, and use it to simulate 2+1D lattice compact quantum electrodynamics with finite density dynamical fermions. The gauge field is represented by a neural network which parameterizes a discretized flow-based transformation of the amplitude while the fermionic sign structure is represented by a neural net backflow. This approach directly represents the U(1) degree of freedom without any truncation, obeys Guass's law by construction, samples autoregressively avoiding any equilibration time, and variationally simulates Gauge-Fermion systems with sign problems accurately. In this model, we investigate confinement and string breaking phenomena in different fermion density and hopping regimes. We study the phase transition from the charge crystal phase to the vacuum phase at zero density, and observe the phase seperation and the net charge penetration blocking effect under magnetic interaction at finite density. In addition, we investigate a magnetic phase transition due to the competition effect between the kinetic energy of fermions and the magnetic energy of the gauge field. With our method, we further note potential differences on the order of the phase transitions between a continuous U(1) system and one with finite truncation. Our state-of-the-art neural network approach opens up new possibilities to study different gauge theories coupled to dynamical matter in higher dimensions.

  • 4 authors
·
Dec 14, 2022

Linear statistics for Coulomb gases: higher order cumulants

We consider N classical particles interacting via the Coulomb potential in spatial dimension d and in the presence of an external trap, at equilibrium at inverse temperature beta. In the large N limit, the particles are confined within a droplet of finite size. We study smooth linear statistics, i.e. the fluctuations of sums of the form {cal L}_N = sum_{i=1}^N f({bf x}_i), where {bf x}_i's are the positions of the particles and where f({bf x}_i) is a sufficiently regular function. There exists at present standard results for the first and second moments of {cal L}_N in the large N limit, as well as associated Central Limit Theorems in general dimension and for a wide class of confining potentials. Here we obtain explicit expressions for the higher order cumulants of {cal L}_N at large N, when the function f({bf x})=f(|{bf x}|) and the confining potential are both rotationnally invariant. A remarkable feature of our results is that these higher cumulants depend only on the value of f'(|{bf x}|) and its higher order derivatives evaluated exactly at the boundary of the droplet, which in this case is a d-dimensional sphere. In the particular two-dimensional case d=2 at the special value beta=2, a connection to the Ginibre ensemble allows us to derive these results in an alternative way using the tools of determinantal point processes. Finally we also obtain the large deviation form of the full probability distribution function of {cal L}_N.

  • 4 authors
·
Oct 25, 2023

Precision holography for non-conformal branes

We set up precision holography for the non-conformal branes preserving 16 supersymmetries. The near-horizon limit of all such p-brane solutions with p \leq 4, including the case of fundamental string solutions, is conformal to AdS_{p+2} x S^{8-p} with a linear dilaton. We develop holographic renormalization for all these cases. In particular, we obtain the most general asymptotic solutions with appropriate Dirichlet boundary conditions, find the corresponding counterterms and compute the holographic 1-point functions, all in complete generality and at the full non-linear level. The result for the stress energy tensor properly defines the notion of mass for backgrounds with such asymptotics. The analysis is done both in the original formulation of the method and also using a radial Hamiltonian analysis. The latter formulation exhibits most clearly the existence of an underlying generalized conformal structure. In the cases of Dp-branes, the corresponding dual boundary theory, the maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory SYM_{p+1}, indeed exhibits the generalized conformal structure found at strong coupling. We compute the holographic 2-point functions of the stress energy tensor and gluon operator and show they satisfy the expected Ward identities and the constraints of generalized conformal structure. The holographic results are also manifestly compatible with the M-theory uplift, with the asymptotic solutions, counterterms, one and two point functions etc of the IIA F1 and D4 appropriately descending from those of M2 and M5 branes, respectively. We present a few applications including the computation of condensates in Witten's model of holographic YM_4 theory.

  • 3 authors
·
Jul 21, 2008

Deep learning probability flows and entropy production rates in active matter

Active matter systems, from self-propelled colloids to motile bacteria, are characterized by the conversion of free energy into useful work at the microscopic scale. These systems generically involve physics beyond the reach of equilibrium statistical mechanics, and a persistent challenge has been to understand the nature of their nonequilibrium states. The entropy production rate and the magnitude of the steady-state probability current provide quantitative ways to do so by measuring the breakdown of time-reversal symmetry and the strength of nonequilibrium transport of measure. Yet, their efficient computation has remained elusive, as they depend on the system's unknown and high-dimensional probability density. Here, building upon recent advances in generative modeling, we develop a deep learning framework that estimates the score of this density. We show that the score, together with the microscopic equations of motion, gives direct access to the entropy production rate, the probability current, and their decomposition into local contributions from individual particles, spatial regions, and degrees of freedom. To represent the score, we introduce a novel, spatially-local transformer-based network architecture that learns high-order interactions between particles while respecting their underlying permutation symmetry. We demonstrate the broad utility and scalability of the method by applying it to several high-dimensional systems of interacting active particles undergoing motility-induced phase separation (MIPS). We show that a single instance of our network trained on a system of 4096 particles at one packing fraction can generalize to other regions of the phase diagram, including systems with as many as 32768 particles. We use this observation to quantify the spatial structure of the departure from equilibrium in MIPS as a function of the number of particles and the packing fraction.

  • 2 authors
·
Sep 22, 2023

Accelerating the Search for Superconductors Using Machine Learning

Prediction of critical temperature (T_c) of a superconductor remains a significant challenge in condensed matter physics. While the BCS theory explains superconductivity in conventional superconductors, there is no framework to predict T_c of unconventional, higher T_{c} superconductors. Quantum Structure Diagrams (QSD) were successful in establishing structure-property relationship for superconductors, quasicrystals, and ferroelectric materials starting from chemical composition. Building on the QSD ideas, we demonstrate that the principal component analysis of superconductivity data uncovers the clustering of various classes of superconductors. We use machine learning analysis and cleaned databases of superconductors to develop predictive models of T_c of a superconductor using its chemical composition. Earlier studies relied on datasets with inconsistencies, leading to suboptimal predictions. To address this, we introduce a data-cleaning workflow to enhance the statistical quality of superconducting databases by eliminating redundancies and resolving inconsistencies. With this improvised database, we apply a supervised machine learning framework and develop a Random Forest model to predict superconductivity and T_c as a function of descriptors motivated from Quantum Structure Diagrams. We demonstrate that this model generalizes effectively in reasonably accurate prediction of T_{c} of compounds outside the database. We further employ our model to systematically screen materials across materials databases as well as various chemically plausible combinations of elements and predict Tl_{5}Ba_{6}Ca_{6}Cu_{9}O_{29} to exhibit superconductivity with a T_{c} sim 105 K. Being based on the descriptors used in QSD's, our model bypasses structural information and predicts T_{c} merely from the chemical composition.

  • 2 authors
·
May 17, 2025

Chaos as an interpretable benchmark for forecasting and data-driven modelling

The striking fractal geometry of strange attractors underscores the generative nature of chaos: like probability distributions, chaotic systems can be repeatedly measured to produce arbitrarily-detailed information about the underlying attractor. Chaotic systems thus pose a unique challenge to modern statistical learning techniques, while retaining quantifiable mathematical properties that make them controllable and interpretable as benchmarks. Here, we present a growing database currently comprising 131 known chaotic dynamical systems spanning fields such as astrophysics, climatology, and biochemistry. Each system is paired with precomputed multivariate and univariate time series. Our dataset has comparable scale to existing static time series databases; however, our systems can be re-integrated to produce additional datasets of arbitrary length and granularity. Our dataset is annotated with known mathematical properties of each system, and we perform feature analysis to broadly categorize the diverse dynamics present across the collection. Chaotic systems inherently challenge forecasting models, and across extensive benchmarks we correlate forecasting performance with the degree of chaos present. We also exploit the unique generative properties of our dataset in several proof-of-concept experiments: surrogate transfer learning to improve time series classification, importance sampling to accelerate model training, and benchmarking symbolic regression algorithms.

  • 1 authors
·
Oct 11, 2021

PFGM++: Unlocking the Potential of Physics-Inspired Generative Models

We introduce a new family of physics-inspired generative models termed PFGM++ that unifies diffusion models and Poisson Flow Generative Models (PFGM). These models realize generative trajectories for N dimensional data by embedding paths in N{+}D dimensional space while still controlling the progression with a simple scalar norm of the D additional variables. The new models reduce to PFGM when D{=}1 and to diffusion models when D{to}infty. The flexibility of choosing D allows us to trade off robustness against rigidity as increasing D results in more concentrated coupling between the data and the additional variable norms. We dispense with the biased large batch field targets used in PFGM and instead provide an unbiased perturbation-based objective similar to diffusion models. To explore different choices of D, we provide a direct alignment method for transferring well-tuned hyperparameters from diffusion models (D{to} infty) to any finite D values. Our experiments show that models with finite D can be superior to previous state-of-the-art diffusion models on CIFAR-10/FFHQ 64{times}64 datasets, with FID scores of 1.91/2.43 when D{=}2048/128. In class-conditional setting, D{=}2048 yields current state-of-the-art FID of 1.74 on CIFAR-10. In addition, we demonstrate that models with smaller D exhibit improved robustness against modeling errors. Code is available at https://github.com/Newbeeer/pfgmpp

  • 6 authors
·
Feb 8, 2023

Lie Group Decompositions for Equivariant Neural Networks

Invariance and equivariance to geometrical transformations have proven to be very useful inductive biases when training (convolutional) neural network models, especially in the low-data regime. Much work has focused on the case where the symmetry group employed is compact or abelian, or both. Recent work has explored enlarging the class of transformations used to the case of Lie groups, principally through the use of their Lie algebra, as well as the group exponential and logarithm maps. The applicability of such methods to larger transformation groups is limited by the fact that depending on the group of interest G, the exponential map may not be surjective. Further limitations are encountered when G is neither compact nor abelian. Using the structure and geometry of Lie groups and their homogeneous spaces, we present a framework by which it is possible to work with such groups primarily focusing on the Lie groups G = GL^{+}(n, R) and G = SL(n, R), as well as their representation as affine transformations R^{n} rtimes G. Invariant integration as well as a global parametrization is realized by decomposing the `larger` groups into subgroups and submanifolds which can be handled individually. Under this framework, we show how convolution kernels can be parametrized to build models equivariant with respect to affine transformations. We evaluate the robustness and out-of-distribution generalisation capability of our model on the standard affine-invariant benchmark classification task, where we outperform all previous equivariant models as well as all Capsule Network proposals.

  • 2 authors
·
Oct 17, 2023

A Periodic Bayesian Flow for Material Generation

Generative modeling of crystal data distribution is an important yet challenging task due to the unique periodic physical symmetry of crystals. Diffusion-based methods have shown early promise in modeling crystal distribution. More recently, Bayesian Flow Networks were introduced to aggregate noisy latent variables, resulting in a variance-reduced parameter space that has been shown to be advantageous for modeling Euclidean data distributions with structural constraints (Song et al., 2023). Inspired by this, we seek to unlock its potential for modeling variables located in non-Euclidean manifolds e.g. those within crystal structures, by overcoming challenging theoretical issues. We introduce CrysBFN, a novel crystal generation method by proposing a periodic Bayesian flow, which essentially differs from the original Gaussian-based BFN by exhibiting non-monotonic entropy dynamics. To successfully realize the concept of periodic Bayesian flow, CrysBFN integrates a new entropy conditioning mechanism and empirically demonstrates its significance compared to time-conditioning. Extensive experiments over both crystal ab initio generation and crystal structure prediction tasks demonstrate the superiority of CrysBFN, which consistently achieves new state-of-the-art on all benchmarks. Surprisingly, we found that CrysBFN enjoys a significant improvement in sampling efficiency, e.g., ~100x speedup 10 v.s. 2000 steps network forwards) compared with previous diffusion-based methods on MP-20 dataset. Code is available at https://github.com/wu-han-lin/CrysBFN.

  • 9 authors
·
Feb 4, 2025

More on the Weak Gravity Conjecture via Convexity of Charged Operators

The Weak Gravity Conjecture has recently been re-formulated in terms of a particle with non-negative self-binding energy. Because of the dual conformal field theory (CFT) formulation in the anti-de Sitter space the conformal dimension Delta (Q) of the lowest-dimension operator with charge Q under some global U(1) symmetry must be a convex function of Q. This property has been conjectured to hold for any (unitary) conformal field theory and generalized to larger global symmetry groups. Here we refine and further test the convex charge conjecture via semiclassical computations for fixed charge sectors of different theories in different dimensions. We analyze the convexity properties of the leading and next-to-leading order terms stemming from the semiclassical computation, de facto, extending previous tests beyond the leading perturbative contributions and to arbitrary charges. In particular, the leading contribution is sufficient to test convexity in the semiclassical computations. We also consider intriguing cases in which the models feature a transition from real to complex conformal dimensions either as a function of the charge or number of matter fields. As a relevant example of the first kind, we investigate the O(N) model in 4+epsilon dimensions. As an example of the second type we consider the U(N)times U(M) model in 4-epsilon dimensions. Both models display a rich dynamics where, by changing the number of matter fields and/or charge, one can achieve dramatically different physical regimes. We discover that whenever a complex conformal dimension appears, the real part satisfies the convexity property.

  • 5 authors
·
Sep 10, 2021

Nonequilibrium Phenomena in Driven and Active Coulomb Field Theories

The classical Coulomb gas model has served as one of the most versatile frameworks in statistical physics, connecting a vast range of phenomena across many different areas. Nonequilibrium generalisations of this model have so far been studied much more scarcely. With the abundance of contemporary research into active and driven systems, one would naturally expect that such generalisations of systems with long-ranged Coulomb-like interactions will form a fertile playground for interesting developments. Here, we present two examples of novel macroscopic behaviour that arise from nonequilibrium fluctuations in long-range interacting systems, namely (1) unscreened long-ranged correlations in strong electrolytes driven by an external electric field and the associated fluctuation-induced forces in the confined Casimir geometry, and (2) out-of-equilibrium critical behaviour in self-chemotactic models that incorporate the particle polarity in the chemotactic response of the cells. Both of these systems have nonlocal Coulomb-like interactions among their constituent particles, namely, the electrostatic interactions in the case of the driven electrolyte, and the chemotactic forces mediated by fast-diffusing signals in the case of self-chemotactic systems. The results presented here hint to the rich phenomenology of nonequilibrium effects that can arise from strong fluctuations in Coulomb interacting systems, and a rich variety of potential future directions, which are discussed.

  • 2 authors
·
Jul 1, 2022

Incomplete RG: Hawking-Page transition, C-theorem and relevant scalar deformations of global AdS

We discuss relevant scalar deformations of a holographic theory with a compact boundary. An example of such a theory would be the global AdS_4 with its spatially compact boundary S^2. To introduce a relevant deformation, we choose to turn on a time-independent and spatially homogeneous non-normalizable scalar operator with m^2 = -2. The finite size of a compact boundary cuts down the RG flow at a finite length scale leading to an incomplete RG flow to IR. We discuss a version of {\it incomplete} C-theorem and an {\it incomplete} attractor like mechanism. We discuss the implication of our results for entanglement entropy and geometric quantities like scalar curvature, volume and mass scale of fundamental excitation of the how these quantities increase or decrease (often monotonically) with the strength of the deformation. Thermal physics of a holographic theory defined on a compact boundary is more interesting than its non-compact counterpart. It is well known that with a compact boundary, there is a possibility of a first order Hawking-Page transition dual to a de-confinement phase transition. From a gravity perspective, a relevant deformation dumps negative energy inside the bulk, increasing the effective cosmological constant (Lambda) of the AdS. Dumping more negative energy in the bulk would make the HP transition harder and the corresponding HP transition temperature would increase. However, we have found the size of the BH at the transition temperature decreases.

  • 3 authors
·
Dec 14, 2021

Rescaled Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity Inflation

We study the inflationary phenomenology of a rescaled Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity. In this framework, the gravitational constant of the Einstein-Hilbert term is rescaled due to effective terms active in the high curvature era. Basically, the total theory is an F(R,G,phi) theory with the Gauss-Bonnet part contributing only a non-minimal coupling to the scalar field, so it is a theory with string theory origins and with a non-trivial F(R) gravity part. The F(R) gravity part in the high curvature regime contributes only a rescaled Einstein-Hilbert term and thus the resulting theory is effectively a rescaled version of a standard Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory. We develop the formalism of rescaled Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity, taking in account the GW170817 constraints on the gravitational wave speed. We show explicitly how the rescaled theory affects directly the primordial scalar and tensor perturbations, and how the slow-roll and observational indices of inflation are affected by the rescaling of the theory. We perform a thorough phenomenological analysis of several models of interest and we show that is it possible to obtain viable inflationary theories compatible with the latest Planck data. Also among the studied models there are cases that yield a relatively large blue tilted tensor spectral index and we demonstrate that these models can lead to detectable primordial gravitational waves in the future gravitational wave experiments. Some of the scenarios examined, for specific values of the reheating temperature may be detectable by SKA, LISA, BBO, DECIGO and the Einstein Telescope.

  • 5 authors
·
Mar 22, 2025

A mechanism to generate varying speed of light via Higgs-dilaton coupling: Theory and cosmological applications

We allow the Higgs field Phi to interact with a dilaton field chi of the background spacetime via the coupling chi^2,Phi^daggerPhi. Upon spontaneous gauge symmetry breaking, the Higgs VEV becomes proportional to chi. While traditionally this linkage is employed to make the Planck mass and particle masses dependent on chi, we present an textit alternative mechanism: the Higgs VEV will be used to construct Planck's constant hbar and speed of light c. Specifically, each open set vicinity of a given point x^* on the spacetime manifold is equipped with a replica of the Glashow-Weinberg-Salam action operating with its own effective values of hbar_* and c_* per hbar_*proptochi^{-1/2}(x^*) and c_*proptochi^{1/2}(x^*), causing these ``fundamental constants'' to vary alongside the dynamical field chi. Moreover, in each open set around x^*, the prevailing value chi(x^*) determines the length and time scales for physical processes occurring in this region as lproptochi^{-1}(x^*) and tauproptochi^{-3/2}(x^*). This leads to an textit anisotropic relation tau^{-1}propto l^{-3/2} between the rate of clocks and the length of rods, resulting in a distinct set of novel physical phenomena. For late-time cosmology, the variation of c along the trajectory of light waves from distant supernovae towards the Earth-based observer necessitates modifications to the Lema\^itre redshift relation and the Hubble law. These modifications are capable of: (1) Accounting for the Pantheon Catalog of SNeIa through a declining speed of light in an expanding Einstein--de Sitter universe, thus avoiding the need for dark energy; (2) Revitalizing Blanchard-Douspis-Rowan-Robinson-Sarkar's CMB power spectrum analysis that bypassed dark energy [A&A 412, 35 (2003)]; and (3) Resolving the H_0 tension without requiring a dynamical dark energy component.

  • 1 authors
·
Aug 5, 2024

Generating π-Functional Molecules Using STGG+ with Active Learning

Generating novel molecules with out-of-distribution properties is a major challenge in molecular discovery. While supervised learning methods generate high-quality molecules similar to those in a dataset, they struggle to generalize to out-of-distribution properties. Reinforcement learning can explore new chemical spaces but often conducts 'reward-hacking' and generates non-synthesizable molecules. In this work, we address this problem by integrating a state-of-the-art supervised learning method, STGG+, in an active learning loop. Our approach iteratively generates, evaluates, and fine-tunes STGG+ to continuously expand its knowledge. We denote this approach STGG+AL. We apply STGG+AL to the design of organic pi-functional materials, specifically two challenging tasks: 1) generating highly absorptive molecules characterized by high oscillator strength and 2) designing absorptive molecules with reasonable oscillator strength in the near-infrared (NIR) range. The generated molecules are validated and rationalized in-silico with time-dependent density functional theory. Our results demonstrate that our method is highly effective in generating novel molecules with high oscillator strength, contrary to existing methods such as reinforcement learning (RL) methods. We open-source our active-learning code along with our Conjugated-xTB dataset containing 2.9 million pi-conjugated molecules and the function for approximating the oscillator strength and absorption wavelength (based on sTDA-xTB).

  • 5 authors
·
Feb 20, 2025 2

PhononBench:A Large-Scale Phonon-Based Benchmark for Dynamical Stability in Crystal Generation

In this work, we introduce PhononBench, the first large-scale benchmark for dynamical stability in AI-generated crystals. Leveraging the recently developed MatterSim interatomic potential, which achieves DFT-level accuracy in phonon predictions across more than 10,000 materials, PhononBench enables efficient large-scale phonon calculations and dynamical-stability analysis for 108,843 crystal structures generated by six leading crystal generation models. PhononBench reveals a widespread limitation of current generative models in ensuring dynamical stability: the average dynamical-stability rate across all generated structures is only 25.83%, with the top-performing model, MatterGen, reaching just 41.0%. Further case studies show that in property-targeted generation-illustrated here by band-gap conditioning with MatterGen--the dynamical-stability rate remains as low as 23.5% even at the optimal band-gap condition of 0.5 eV. In space-group-controlled generation, higher-symmetry crystals exhibit better stability (e.g., cubic systems achieve rates up to 49.2%), yet the average stability across all controlled generations is still only 34.4%. An important additional outcome of this study is the identification of 28,119 crystal structures that are phonon-stable across the entire Brillouin zone, providing a substantial pool of reliable candidates for future materials exploration. By establishing the first large-scale dynamical-stability benchmark, this work systematically highlights the current limitations of crystal generation models and offers essential evaluation criteria and guidance for their future development toward the design and discovery of physically viable materials. All model-generated crystal structures, phonon calculation results, and the high-throughput evaluation workflows developed in PhononBench will be openly released at https://github.com/xqh19970407/PhononBench

MatterGen: a generative model for inorganic materials design

The design of functional materials with desired properties is essential in driving technological advances in areas like energy storage, catalysis, and carbon capture. Generative models provide a new paradigm for materials design by directly generating entirely novel materials given desired property constraints. Despite recent progress, current generative models have low success rate in proposing stable crystals, or can only satisfy a very limited set of property constraints. Here, we present MatterGen, a model that generates stable, diverse inorganic materials across the periodic table and can further be fine-tuned to steer the generation towards a broad range of property constraints. To enable this, we introduce a new diffusion-based generative process that produces crystalline structures by gradually refining atom types, coordinates, and the periodic lattice. We further introduce adapter modules to enable fine-tuning towards any given property constraints with a labeled dataset. Compared to prior generative models, structures produced by MatterGen are more than twice as likely to be novel and stable, and more than 15 times closer to the local energy minimum. After fine-tuning, MatterGen successfully generates stable, novel materials with desired chemistry, symmetry, as well as mechanical, electronic and magnetic properties. Finally, we demonstrate multi-property materials design capabilities by proposing structures that have both high magnetic density and a chemical composition with low supply-chain risk. We believe that the quality of generated materials and the breadth of MatterGen's capabilities represent a major advancement towards creating a universal generative model for materials design.

  • 21 authors
·
Dec 6, 2023

Information Theory and Statistical Mechanics Revisited

The statistical mechanics of Gibbs is a juxtaposition of subjective, probabilistic ideas on the one hand and objective, mechanical ideas on the other. In this paper, we follow the path set out by Jaynes, including elements added subsequently to that original work, to explore the consequences of the purely statistical point of view. We show how standard methods in the equilibrium theory could have been derived simply from a description of the available problem information. In addition, our presentation leads to novel insights into questions associated with symmetry and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. Two surprising consequences to be explored in further work are that (in)distinguishability factors are automatically predicted from the problem formulation and that a quantity related to the thermodynamic entropy production is found by considering information loss in non-equilibrium processes. Using the problem of ion channel thermodynamics as an example, we illustrate the idea of building up complexity by successively adding information to create progressively more complex descriptions of a physical system. Our result is that such statistical mechanical descriptions can be used to create transparent, computable, experimentally-relevant models that may be informed by more detailed atomistic simulations. We also derive a theory for the kinetic behavior of this system, identifying the nonequilibrium `process' free energy functional. The Gibbs relation for this functional is a fluctuation-dissipation theorem applicable arbitrarily far from equilibrium, that captures the effect of non-local and time-dependent behavior from transient driving forces. Based on this work, it is clear that statistical mechanics is a general tool for constructing the relationships between constraints on system information.

  • 3 authors
·
May 27, 2011

amangkurat: A Python Library for Symplectic Pseudo-Spectral Solution of the Idealized (1+1)D Nonlinear Klein-Gordon Equation

This study introduces amangkurat, an open-source Python library designed for the robust numerical simulation of relativistic scalar field dynamics governed by the nonlinear Klein-Gordon equation in (1+1)D spacetime. The software implements a hybrid computational strategy that couples Fourier pseudo-spectral spatial discretization with a symplectic Størmer-Verlet temporal integrator, ensuring both exponential spatial convergence for smooth solutions and long-term preservation of Hamiltonian structure. To optimize performance, the solver incorporates adaptive timestepping based on Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) stability criteria and utilizes Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation for parallelized force computation. The library's capabilities are validated across four canonical physical regimes: dispersive linear wave propagation, static topological kink preservation in phi-fourth theory, integrable breather dynamics in the sine-Gordon model, and non-integrable kink-antikink collisions. Beyond standard numerical validation, this work establishes a multi-faceted analysis framework employing information-theoretic entropy metrics (Shannon, Rényi, and Tsallis), kernel density estimation, and phase space reconstruction to quantify the distinct phenomenological signatures of these regimes. Statistical hypothesis testing confirms that these scenarios represent statistically distinguishable dynamical populations. Benchmarks on standard workstation hardware demonstrate that the implementation achieves high computational efficiency, making it a viable platform for exploratory research and education in nonlinear field theory.

  • 2 authors
·
Dec 27, 2025

Rise and Fall of Anderson Localization by Lattice Vibrations: A Time-Dependent Machine Learning Approach

The intricate relationship between electrons and the crystal lattice is a linchpin in condensed matter, traditionally described by the Fr\"ohlich model encompassing the lowest-order lattice-electron coupling. Recently developed quantum acoustics, emphasizing the wave nature of lattice vibrations, has enabled the exploration of previously uncharted territories of electron-lattice interaction not accessible with conventional tools such as perturbation theory. In this context, our agenda here is two-fold. First, we showcase the application of machine learning methods to categorize various interaction regimes within the subtle interplay of electrons and the dynamical lattice landscape. Second, we shed light on a nebulous region of electron dynamics identified by the machine learning approach and then attribute it to transient localization, where strong lattice vibrations result in a momentary Anderson prison for electronic wavepackets, which are later released by the evolution of the lattice. Overall, our research illuminates the spectrum of dynamics within the Fr\"ohlich model, such as transient localization, which has been suggested as a pivotal factor contributing to the mysteries surrounding strange metals. Furthermore, this paves the way for utilizing time-dependent perspectives in machine learning techniques for designing materials with tailored electron-lattice properties.

  • 4 authors
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May 27, 2024