A general formalism for machine-learning models based on multipolar-spherical harmonics

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Domina, Michelangelo, Sanvito, Stefano
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Domina, Michelangelo
Sanvito, Stefano
author_facet Domina, Michelangelo
Sanvito, Stefano
contents The formulation of descriptors of the local chemical environment, enabling the construction of machine-learning models, is usually obtained by studying the properties of the expansion coefficients of a neighborhood density. In this work, we show that all the transformation properties of the descriptors and their behaviour under rotation, inversion and complex conjugation, are derived from the choice of the basis over which the density is expanded. Furthermore, crucially they are independent from the explicit mathematical form of the neighborhood density. In particular, we show that all the descriptors investigated, can be obtained by an expansion in multipolar spherical harmonics, which constitutes the core of this work, and which is introduced and analysed in great detail. By exploiting the orthogonality and the transformation rules of the multipolar spherical harmonics, we show that several formulations are simplified, such as the one needed to obtain the $λ-$SOAP kernel and its properties. We close this work by applying our framework to several multi-body descriptors available in literature, providing an in-depth analysis of their main properties, as made clear from the vantage viewpoint of a basis-centered approach.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_09618
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A general formalism for machine-learning models based on multipolar-spherical harmonics
Domina, Michelangelo
Sanvito, Stefano
Chemical Physics
Materials Science
Computational Physics
The formulation of descriptors of the local chemical environment, enabling the construction of machine-learning models, is usually obtained by studying the properties of the expansion coefficients of a neighborhood density. In this work, we show that all the transformation properties of the descriptors and their behaviour under rotation, inversion and complex conjugation, are derived from the choice of the basis over which the density is expanded. Furthermore, crucially they are independent from the explicit mathematical form of the neighborhood density. In particular, we show that all the descriptors investigated, can be obtained by an expansion in multipolar spherical harmonics, which constitutes the core of this work, and which is introduced and analysed in great detail. By exploiting the orthogonality and the transformation rules of the multipolar spherical harmonics, we show that several formulations are simplified, such as the one needed to obtain the $λ-$SOAP kernel and its properties. We close this work by applying our framework to several multi-body descriptors available in literature, providing an in-depth analysis of their main properties, as made clear from the vantage viewpoint of a basis-centered approach.
title A general formalism for machine-learning models based on multipolar-spherical harmonics
topic Chemical Physics
Materials Science
Computational Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.09618