Discovery of interaction and diffusion kernels in particle-to-mean-field multi-agent systems

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Albi, Giacomo, Alla, Alessandro, Calzola, Elisa
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866912969399468032
author Albi, Giacomo
Alla, Alessandro
Calzola, Elisa
author_facet Albi, Giacomo
Alla, Alessandro
Calzola, Elisa
contents We propose a data-driven framework to learn interaction kernels in stochastic multi-agent systems. Our approach aims at identifying the functional form of nonlocal interaction and diffusion terms directly from trajectory data, without any a priori knowledge of the underlying interaction structure. Starting from a discrete stochastic binary-interaction model, we formulate the inverse problem as a sequence of sparse regression tasks in structured finite-dimensional spaces spanned by compactly supported basis functions, such as piecewise linear polynomials. In particular, we assume that pairwise interactions between agents are not directly observed and that only limited trajectory data are available. To address these challenges, we propose two complementary identification strategies. The first based on random-batch sampling, which compensates for latent interactions while preserving the statistical structure of the full dynamics in expectation. The second based on a mean-field approximation, where the empirical particle density reconstructed from the data defines a continuous nonlocal regression problem. Numerical experiments demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed framework, showing accurate reconstruction of both interaction and diffusion kernels even from partially observed. The method is validated on benchmark models, including bounded-confidence and attraction-repulsion dynamics, where the two proposed strategies achieve comparable levels of accuracy.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_15927
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Discovery of interaction and diffusion kernels in particle-to-mean-field multi-agent systems
Albi, Giacomo
Alla, Alessandro
Calzola, Elisa
Machine Learning
Numerical Analysis
Dynamical Systems
65L09, 70F17, 65C35, 35Q84
We propose a data-driven framework to learn interaction kernels in stochastic multi-agent systems. Our approach aims at identifying the functional form of nonlocal interaction and diffusion terms directly from trajectory data, without any a priori knowledge of the underlying interaction structure. Starting from a discrete stochastic binary-interaction model, we formulate the inverse problem as a sequence of sparse regression tasks in structured finite-dimensional spaces spanned by compactly supported basis functions, such as piecewise linear polynomials. In particular, we assume that pairwise interactions between agents are not directly observed and that only limited trajectory data are available. To address these challenges, we propose two complementary identification strategies. The first based on random-batch sampling, which compensates for latent interactions while preserving the statistical structure of the full dynamics in expectation. The second based on a mean-field approximation, where the empirical particle density reconstructed from the data defines a continuous nonlocal regression problem. Numerical experiments demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed framework, showing accurate reconstruction of both interaction and diffusion kernels even from partially observed. The method is validated on benchmark models, including bounded-confidence and attraction-repulsion dynamics, where the two proposed strategies achieve comparable levels of accuracy.
title Discovery of interaction and diffusion kernels in particle-to-mean-field multi-agent systems
topic Machine Learning
Numerical Analysis
Dynamical Systems
65L09, 70F17, 65C35, 35Q84
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.15927