FePySR: A Neural Feature Extraction Framework for Efficient and Scalable Symbolic Regression

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Hauptverfasser: Yu, Zhiming, Lu, Wangtao, Lai, Xin
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Yu, Zhiming
Lu, Wangtao
Lai, Xin
author_facet Yu, Zhiming
Lu, Wangtao
Lai, Xin
contents A fundamental challenge in symbolic regression (SR) is efficiently recovering complex mathematical expressions from observational data. Although this problem is NP-hard, many expressions of practical interest decompose naturally into combinations of nonlinear feature modules, concentrating structural complexity into a small number of reusable components. Here, we introduce FePySR, a two-stage framework that reduces the SR search space by extracting valid features prior to equation search. FePySR first employs a heterogeneous neural network to constrain observational data to a set of candidate expressions, then performs structural optimization within this refined expression space using PySR. Across five standard benchmarks, FePySR outperforms state-of-the-art methods by achieving higher equation recovery rates. On a set of 75 highly complex synthesized equations, FePySR recovers 36 equations, while producing substantially smaller mean squared errors on the remaining unrecovered cases, with reduced computation time compared to PySR. FePySR's first stage also maintains consistent performance under varying numbers of selected top features and increasing levels of noise in the observational data. Applied to ordinary differential equations governing biological systems, FePySR successfully identifies governing equations in 24 out of 100 tests where PySR recovers none. Taken together, FePySR is a generalizable framework that can enhance the SR solvers, enabling the efficient and reliable recovery of symbolic expressions across scientific domains.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_12704
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle FePySR: A Neural Feature Extraction Framework for Efficient and Scalable Symbolic Regression
Yu, Zhiming
Lu, Wangtao
Lai, Xin
Symbolic Computation
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
68T05 (Primary), 68W50, 68T20 (Secondary)
I.1.2; I.2.1
A fundamental challenge in symbolic regression (SR) is efficiently recovering complex mathematical expressions from observational data. Although this problem is NP-hard, many expressions of practical interest decompose naturally into combinations of nonlinear feature modules, concentrating structural complexity into a small number of reusable components. Here, we introduce FePySR, a two-stage framework that reduces the SR search space by extracting valid features prior to equation search. FePySR first employs a heterogeneous neural network to constrain observational data to a set of candidate expressions, then performs structural optimization within this refined expression space using PySR. Across five standard benchmarks, FePySR outperforms state-of-the-art methods by achieving higher equation recovery rates. On a set of 75 highly complex synthesized equations, FePySR recovers 36 equations, while producing substantially smaller mean squared errors on the remaining unrecovered cases, with reduced computation time compared to PySR. FePySR's first stage also maintains consistent performance under varying numbers of selected top features and increasing levels of noise in the observational data. Applied to ordinary differential equations governing biological systems, FePySR successfully identifies governing equations in 24 out of 100 tests where PySR recovers none. Taken together, FePySR is a generalizable framework that can enhance the SR solvers, enabling the efficient and reliable recovery of symbolic expressions across scientific domains.
title FePySR: A Neural Feature Extraction Framework for Efficient and Scalable Symbolic Regression
topic Symbolic Computation
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
68T05 (Primary), 68W50, 68T20 (Secondary)
I.1.2; I.2.1
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.12704