Accurate and efficient machine learning interatomic potentials for finite temperature modeling of molecular crystals

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Della Pia, Flaviano, Shi, Benjamin X., Kapil, Venkat, Zen, Andrea, Alfè, Dario, Michaelides, Angelos
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Della Pia, Flaviano
Shi, Benjamin X.
Kapil, Venkat
Zen, Andrea
Alfè, Dario
Michaelides, Angelos
author_facet Della Pia, Flaviano
Shi, Benjamin X.
Kapil, Venkat
Zen, Andrea
Alfè, Dario
Michaelides, Angelos
contents As with many parts of the natural sciences, machine learning interatomic potentials (MLIPs) are revolutionizing the modeling of molecular crystals. However, challenges remain for the accurate and efficient calculation of sublimation enthalpies - a key thermodynamic quantity measuring the stability of a molecular crystal. Specifically, two key stumbling blocks are: (i) the need for thousands of ab initio quality reference structures to generate training data; and (ii) the sometimes unreliable nature of density functional theory, the main technique for generating such data. Exploiting recent developments in foundational models for chemistry and materials science alongside accurate quantum diffusion Monte Carlo benchmarks, offers a promising path forward. Herein, we demonstrate the generation of MLIPs capable of describing molecular crystals at finite temperature and pressure with sub-chemical accuracy, using as few as $\sim 200$ data structures; an order of magnitude improvement over the current state-of-the-art. We apply this framework to compute the sublimation enthalpies of the X23 dataset, accounting for anharmonicity and nuclear quantum effects, achieving sub-chemical accuracy with respect to experiment. Importantly, we show that our framework can be generalized to crystals of pharmaceutical relevance, including paracetamol and aspirin. Nuclear quantum effects are also accurately captured as shown for the case of squaric acid. By enabling accurate modeling at ambient conditions, this work paves the way for deeper insights into pharmaceutical and biological systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_15530
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Accurate and efficient machine learning interatomic potentials for finite temperature modeling of molecular crystals
Della Pia, Flaviano
Shi, Benjamin X.
Kapil, Venkat
Zen, Andrea
Alfè, Dario
Michaelides, Angelos
Computational Physics
Materials Science
As with many parts of the natural sciences, machine learning interatomic potentials (MLIPs) are revolutionizing the modeling of molecular crystals. However, challenges remain for the accurate and efficient calculation of sublimation enthalpies - a key thermodynamic quantity measuring the stability of a molecular crystal. Specifically, two key stumbling blocks are: (i) the need for thousands of ab initio quality reference structures to generate training data; and (ii) the sometimes unreliable nature of density functional theory, the main technique for generating such data. Exploiting recent developments in foundational models for chemistry and materials science alongside accurate quantum diffusion Monte Carlo benchmarks, offers a promising path forward. Herein, we demonstrate the generation of MLIPs capable of describing molecular crystals at finite temperature and pressure with sub-chemical accuracy, using as few as $\sim 200$ data structures; an order of magnitude improvement over the current state-of-the-art. We apply this framework to compute the sublimation enthalpies of the X23 dataset, accounting for anharmonicity and nuclear quantum effects, achieving sub-chemical accuracy with respect to experiment. Importantly, we show that our framework can be generalized to crystals of pharmaceutical relevance, including paracetamol and aspirin. Nuclear quantum effects are also accurately captured as shown for the case of squaric acid. By enabling accurate modeling at ambient conditions, this work paves the way for deeper insights into pharmaceutical and biological systems.
title Accurate and efficient machine learning interatomic potentials for finite temperature modeling of molecular crystals
topic Computational Physics
Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.15530