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Main Authors: Voltarelli, Leonardo G. J. M., Osiecka-Drewniak, Natalia, Piwowarczyk, Marcin, Juszynska-Galazka, Ewa, Zola, Rafael S., Perc, Matjaz, Ribeiro, Haroldo V.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.26723
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author Voltarelli, Leonardo G. J. M.
Osiecka-Drewniak, Natalia
Piwowarczyk, Marcin
Juszynska-Galazka, Ewa
Zola, Rafael S.
Perc, Matjaz
Ribeiro, Haroldo V.
author_facet Voltarelli, Leonardo G. J. M.
Osiecka-Drewniak, Natalia
Piwowarczyk, Marcin
Juszynska-Galazka, Ewa
Zola, Rafael S.
Perc, Matjaz
Ribeiro, Haroldo V.
contents Liquid crystal textures encode rich structural information, yet mapping these images to mesophase identity remains challenging because visually similar patterns can arise from distinct structures. Here we present a simple, interpretable representation that maps textures to a 75-dimensional frequency vector of two-by-two ordinal patterns, grouped into eleven symmetry-based types to characterize a large-scale dataset spanning seven mesophases. Combined with a simple machine learning classifier, this lightweight representation yields near-perfect phase recognition, including the difficult distinction between smectic A and smectic B mesophases. Our approach generalizes to unseen compounds and accurately distinguishes between phase identity and material origin. Unlike deep learning methods, each ordinal pattern is readily interpretable, and model explanations augmented with network visualizations of pattern interactions reveal the specific types and pairwise dependencies that drive each mesophase decision, providing compact, physically meaningful summaries of texture determinants. These results establish two-by-two ordinal patterns as an interpretable and scalable tool for liquid crystal image analysis, with potential applications to other complex patterned systems in materials science.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_26723
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Interpretable liquid crystal phase classification via two-by-two ordinal patterns
Voltarelli, Leonardo G. J. M.
Osiecka-Drewniak, Natalia
Piwowarczyk, Marcin
Juszynska-Galazka, Ewa
Zola, Rafael S.
Perc, Matjaz
Ribeiro, Haroldo V.
Soft Condensed Matter
Machine Learning
Liquid crystal textures encode rich structural information, yet mapping these images to mesophase identity remains challenging because visually similar patterns can arise from distinct structures. Here we present a simple, interpretable representation that maps textures to a 75-dimensional frequency vector of two-by-two ordinal patterns, grouped into eleven symmetry-based types to characterize a large-scale dataset spanning seven mesophases. Combined with a simple machine learning classifier, this lightweight representation yields near-perfect phase recognition, including the difficult distinction between smectic A and smectic B mesophases. Our approach generalizes to unseen compounds and accurately distinguishes between phase identity and material origin. Unlike deep learning methods, each ordinal pattern is readily interpretable, and model explanations augmented with network visualizations of pattern interactions reveal the specific types and pairwise dependencies that drive each mesophase decision, providing compact, physically meaningful summaries of texture determinants. These results establish two-by-two ordinal patterns as an interpretable and scalable tool for liquid crystal image analysis, with potential applications to other complex patterned systems in materials science.
title Interpretable liquid crystal phase classification via two-by-two ordinal patterns
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.26723