Benchmarking machine-learned interatomic potentials for molecular infrared spectroscopy

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Bhatia, Nitik, Krejci, Ondrej, Rinke, Patrick
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author Bhatia, Nitik
Krejci, Ondrej
Rinke, Patrick
author_facet Bhatia, Nitik
Krejci, Ondrej
Rinke, Patrick
contents Machine learning has transformed the field of atomistic simulations by enabling the development of interatomic potentials that are computationally efficient and highly accurate. These advances have opened the door to modeling molecular vibrations and predicting infrared spectra with near ab-initio accuracy at a fraction of the computational cost. Among these approaches, message-passing neural networks (MPNNs) have emerged as a particularly powerful class of models for representing complex atomic interactions. In this study, we benchmark five MPNN architectures, SchNet, FieldSchNet, SO3Net, PaiNN, and MACE, for predicting infrared spectra of small organic molecules. SchNet and FieldSchNet are invariant models, while SO3Net, PaiNN, and MACE are equivariant, explicitly accounting for rotational symmetries in molecular representations. We evaluate their performance in terms of computational efficiency, accuracy, and robustness. All models accurately predict properties, such as energies, forces, and dipole moments, required for infrared spectra calculations. They also capture harmonic frequencies and infrared spectra derived from molecular dynamics with high fidelity for molecules in the training set. However, SchNet and FieldSchNet show limited transferability to unseen systems, while SO3Net, PaiNN, and MACE generalize more effectively. In terms of computational efficiency, SchNet is the most efficient and FieldSchNet enables field-dependent response modeling but with higher cost. PaiNN achieves the best balance between accuracy and efficiency, MACE provides the highest spectral accuracy and transferability, and SO3Net performs between PaiNN and MACE.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_22367
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Benchmarking machine-learned interatomic potentials for molecular infrared spectroscopy
Bhatia, Nitik
Krejci, Ondrej
Rinke, Patrick
Chemical Physics
Atomic and Molecular Clusters
Machine learning has transformed the field of atomistic simulations by enabling the development of interatomic potentials that are computationally efficient and highly accurate. These advances have opened the door to modeling molecular vibrations and predicting infrared spectra with near ab-initio accuracy at a fraction of the computational cost. Among these approaches, message-passing neural networks (MPNNs) have emerged as a particularly powerful class of models for representing complex atomic interactions. In this study, we benchmark five MPNN architectures, SchNet, FieldSchNet, SO3Net, PaiNN, and MACE, for predicting infrared spectra of small organic molecules. SchNet and FieldSchNet are invariant models, while SO3Net, PaiNN, and MACE are equivariant, explicitly accounting for rotational symmetries in molecular representations. We evaluate their performance in terms of computational efficiency, accuracy, and robustness. All models accurately predict properties, such as energies, forces, and dipole moments, required for infrared spectra calculations. They also capture harmonic frequencies and infrared spectra derived from molecular dynamics with high fidelity for molecules in the training set. However, SchNet and FieldSchNet show limited transferability to unseen systems, while SO3Net, PaiNN, and MACE generalize more effectively. In terms of computational efficiency, SchNet is the most efficient and FieldSchNet enables field-dependent response modeling but with higher cost. PaiNN achieves the best balance between accuracy and efficiency, MACE provides the highest spectral accuracy and transferability, and SO3Net performs between PaiNN and MACE.
title Benchmarking machine-learned interatomic potentials for molecular infrared spectroscopy
topic Chemical Physics
Atomic and Molecular Clusters
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.22367