Knowledge Distillation of Noisy Force Labels for Improved Coarse-Grained Force Fields

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Olowookere, Feranmi V., Matin, Sakib, Pachalieva, Aleksandra, Lubbers, Nicholas, Shinkle, Emily
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Olowookere, Feranmi V.
Matin, Sakib
Pachalieva, Aleksandra
Lubbers, Nicholas
Shinkle, Emily
author_facet Olowookere, Feranmi V.
Matin, Sakib
Pachalieva, Aleksandra
Lubbers, Nicholas
Shinkle, Emily
contents Molecular dynamics simulations are an integral tool for studying the atomistic behavior of materials under diverse conditions. However, they can be computationally demanding in wall-clock time, especially for large systems, which limits the time and length scales accessible. Coarse-grained (CG) models reduce computational expense by grouping atoms into simplified representations commonly called beads, but sacrifice atomic detail and introduce mapping noise, complicating the training of machine-learned surrogates. Moreover, because CG models inherently include entropic contributions, they cannot be fit directly to all-atom energies, leaving instantaneous, noisy forces as the only state-specific quantities available for training. Here, we apply a knowledge distillation framework by first training an initial CG neural network potential (the teacher) solely on AA-to-CG mapped forces to denoise those labels, then distill its force and energy predictions to train refined CG models (the student) in both single- and ensemble-training setups while exploring different force and energy target combinations. We validate this framework on a complex molecular fluid, a deep eutectic solvent, by evaluating two-, three-, and many-body properties and compare the CG and all-atom results. Our findings demonstrate that training a student model on ensemble teacher-predicted forces and per-bead energies improves the quality and stability of CG force fields.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_26650
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Knowledge Distillation of Noisy Force Labels for Improved Coarse-Grained Force Fields
Olowookere, Feranmi V.
Matin, Sakib
Pachalieva, Aleksandra
Lubbers, Nicholas
Shinkle, Emily
Chemical Physics
Molecular dynamics simulations are an integral tool for studying the atomistic behavior of materials under diverse conditions. However, they can be computationally demanding in wall-clock time, especially for large systems, which limits the time and length scales accessible. Coarse-grained (CG) models reduce computational expense by grouping atoms into simplified representations commonly called beads, but sacrifice atomic detail and introduce mapping noise, complicating the training of machine-learned surrogates. Moreover, because CG models inherently include entropic contributions, they cannot be fit directly to all-atom energies, leaving instantaneous, noisy forces as the only state-specific quantities available for training. Here, we apply a knowledge distillation framework by first training an initial CG neural network potential (the teacher) solely on AA-to-CG mapped forces to denoise those labels, then distill its force and energy predictions to train refined CG models (the student) in both single- and ensemble-training setups while exploring different force and energy target combinations. We validate this framework on a complex molecular fluid, a deep eutectic solvent, by evaluating two-, three-, and many-body properties and compare the CG and all-atom results. Our findings demonstrate that training a student model on ensemble teacher-predicted forces and per-bead energies improves the quality and stability of CG force fields.
title Knowledge Distillation of Noisy Force Labels for Improved Coarse-Grained Force Fields
topic Chemical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.26650