The parity gap in crystal tensor prediction
Read the original on arXiv Machine Learning →The Flow has not summarised this story yet — read it at arXiv Machine Learning.
The Flow has not summarised this story yet — read it at arXiv Machine Learning.
The article demonstrates that a single design decision—whether a machine‑learning model’s features include parity labels—determines if the model can ever predict physically impossible values for material properties. Using group‑theoretical analysis, the authors introduce the parity gap criterion to identify which properties and crystal symmetries are affected. Experiments on 2,000 centrosymmetric crystals show that parity‑labelled models achieve exact zero predictions for forbidden piezoelectric responses, whereas models lacking parity labels produce large errors, yet both maintain comparable overall accuracy.
arXiv:2502. 02748v4 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Predicting properties of crystals from their structures is a fundamental yet challenging task in materials science.
The paper introduces SPARC, a reinforcement learning framework that generates crystalline materials while respecting symmetry constraints essential for meaningful physical properties. SPARC is applied to two tasks: optimizing uniaxial dielectric anisotropy, which requires specific crystal classes, and maximizing spectroscopic limited maximum efficiency, a scalar objective that lets the algorithm discover suitable crystallographic motifs. The results demonstrate that symmetry is a foundational requirement for producing robust, realizable functional materials.
arXiv:2410. 08562v5 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Advanced crystal design can accelerate materials discovery across applications from photovoltaics to spintronics.
arXiv:2605. 20440v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Symmetry is central to the physical sciences, yet machine learning usually captures it only approximately, leaving a residual per-step equivariance error $\varepsilon$ that compounds with depth $M$ as $M\varepsilon$, whereas exact equivariance holds at unbounded depth; we demonstrate this divergence at fourteen orders of magnitude.
arXiv:2607. 24818v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Accurate prediction of crystal properties remains a key challenge in computational materials science.