EGG-SR: Embedding Symbolic Equivalence into Symbolic Regression via Equality Graph

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Jiang, Nan, Wang, Ziyi, Xue, Yexiang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Jiang, Nan
Wang, Ziyi
Xue, Yexiang
author_facet Jiang, Nan
Wang, Ziyi
Xue, Yexiang
contents Symbolic regression seeks to uncover physical laws from experimental data by searching for closed-form expressions, which is an important task in AI-driven scientific discovery. Yet the exponential growth of the search space of expression renders the task computationally challenging. A promising yet underexplored direction for reducing the search space and accelerating training lies in *symbolic equivalence*: many expressions, although syntactically different, define the same function -- for example, $\log(x_1^2x_2^3)$, $\log(x_1^2)+\log(x_2^3)$, and $2\log(x_1)+3\log(x_2)$. Existing algorithms treat such variants as distinct outputs, leading to redundant exploration and slow learning. We introduce EGG-SR, a unified framework that integrates symbolic equivalence into a class of modern symbolic regression methods, including Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS), Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL), and Large Language Models (LLMs). EGG-SR compactly represents equivalent expressions through the proposed EGG module (via equality graphs), accelerating learning by: (1) pruning redundant subtree exploration in EGG-MCTS, (2) aggregating rewards across equivalent generated sequences in EGG-DRL, and (3) enriching feedback prompts in EGG-LLM. Theoretically, we show the benefit of embedding EGG into learning: it tightens the regret bound of MCTS and reduces the variance of the DRL gradient estimator. Empirically, EGG-SR consistently enhances a class of symbolic regression models across several benchmarks, discovering more accurate expressions within the same time limit. Project page is at: https://nan-jiang-group.github.io/egg-sr.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_05849
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle EGG-SR: Embedding Symbolic Equivalence into Symbolic Regression via Equality Graph
Jiang, Nan
Wang, Ziyi
Xue, Yexiang
Symbolic Computation
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Symbolic regression seeks to uncover physical laws from experimental data by searching for closed-form expressions, which is an important task in AI-driven scientific discovery. Yet the exponential growth of the search space of expression renders the task computationally challenging. A promising yet underexplored direction for reducing the search space and accelerating training lies in *symbolic equivalence*: many expressions, although syntactically different, define the same function -- for example, $\log(x_1^2x_2^3)$, $\log(x_1^2)+\log(x_2^3)$, and $2\log(x_1)+3\log(x_2)$. Existing algorithms treat such variants as distinct outputs, leading to redundant exploration and slow learning. We introduce EGG-SR, a unified framework that integrates symbolic equivalence into a class of modern symbolic regression methods, including Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS), Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL), and Large Language Models (LLMs). EGG-SR compactly represents equivalent expressions through the proposed EGG module (via equality graphs), accelerating learning by: (1) pruning redundant subtree exploration in EGG-MCTS, (2) aggregating rewards across equivalent generated sequences in EGG-DRL, and (3) enriching feedback prompts in EGG-LLM. Theoretically, we show the benefit of embedding EGG into learning: it tightens the regret bound of MCTS and reduces the variance of the DRL gradient estimator. Empirically, EGG-SR consistently enhances a class of symbolic regression models across several benchmarks, discovering more accurate expressions within the same time limit. Project page is at: https://nan-jiang-group.github.io/egg-sr.
title EGG-SR: Embedding Symbolic Equivalence into Symbolic Regression via Equality Graph
topic Symbolic Computation
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.05849