Evolving Scientific Discovery by Unifying Data and Background Knowledge with AI Hilbert

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Cory-Wright, Ryan, Cornelio, Cristina, Dash, Sanjeeb, Khadir, Bachir El, Horesh, Lior
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Cory-Wright, Ryan
Cornelio, Cristina
Dash, Sanjeeb
Khadir, Bachir El
Horesh, Lior
author_facet Cory-Wright, Ryan
Cornelio, Cristina
Dash, Sanjeeb
Khadir, Bachir El
Horesh, Lior
contents The discovery of scientific formulae that parsimoniously explain natural phenomena and align with existing background theory is a key goal in science. Historically, scientists have derived natural laws by manipulating equations based on existing knowledge, forming new equations, and verifying them experimentally. In recent years, data-driven scientific discovery has emerged as a viable competitor in settings with large amounts of experimental data. Unfortunately, data-driven methods often fail to discover valid laws when data is noisy or scarce. Accordingly, recent works combine regression and reasoning to eliminate formulae inconsistent with background theory. However, the problem of searching over the space of formulae consistent with background theory to find one that best fits the data is not well-solved. We propose a solution to this problem when all axioms and scientific laws are expressible via polynomial equalities and inequalities and argue that our approach is widely applicable. We model notions of minimal complexity using binary variables and logical constraints, solve polynomial optimization problems via mixed-integer linear or semidefinite optimization, and prove the validity of our scientific discoveries in a principled manner using Positivstellensatz certificates. The optimization techniques leveraged in this paper allow our approach to run in polynomial time with fully correct background theory under an assumption that the complexity of our derivation is bounded), or non-deterministic polynomial (NP) time with partially correct background theory. We demonstrate that some famous scientific laws, including Kepler's Third Law of Planetary Motion, the Hagen-Poiseuille Equation, and the Radiated Gravitational Wave Power equation, can be derived in a principled manner from axioms and experimental data.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2308_09474
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Evolving Scientific Discovery by Unifying Data and Background Knowledge with AI Hilbert
Cory-Wright, Ryan
Cornelio, Cristina
Dash, Sanjeeb
Khadir, Bachir El
Horesh, Lior
Artificial Intelligence
Symbolic Computation
Optimization and Control
The discovery of scientific formulae that parsimoniously explain natural phenomena and align with existing background theory is a key goal in science. Historically, scientists have derived natural laws by manipulating equations based on existing knowledge, forming new equations, and verifying them experimentally. In recent years, data-driven scientific discovery has emerged as a viable competitor in settings with large amounts of experimental data. Unfortunately, data-driven methods often fail to discover valid laws when data is noisy or scarce. Accordingly, recent works combine regression and reasoning to eliminate formulae inconsistent with background theory. However, the problem of searching over the space of formulae consistent with background theory to find one that best fits the data is not well-solved. We propose a solution to this problem when all axioms and scientific laws are expressible via polynomial equalities and inequalities and argue that our approach is widely applicable. We model notions of minimal complexity using binary variables and logical constraints, solve polynomial optimization problems via mixed-integer linear or semidefinite optimization, and prove the validity of our scientific discoveries in a principled manner using Positivstellensatz certificates. The optimization techniques leveraged in this paper allow our approach to run in polynomial time with fully correct background theory under an assumption that the complexity of our derivation is bounded), or non-deterministic polynomial (NP) time with partially correct background theory. We demonstrate that some famous scientific laws, including Kepler's Third Law of Planetary Motion, the Hagen-Poiseuille Equation, and the Radiated Gravitational Wave Power equation, can be derived in a principled manner from axioms and experimental data.
title Evolving Scientific Discovery by Unifying Data and Background Knowledge with AI Hilbert
topic Artificial Intelligence
Symbolic Computation
Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.09474