A practical guide to machine learning interatomic potentials -- Status and future

Ryan Jacobs; Dane Morgan; Siamak Attarian; Jun Meng; Chen Shen; Zhenghao Wu; Clare Yijia Xie; Julia H. Yang; Nongnuch Artrith; Ben Blaiszik; Gerbrand Ceder; Kamal Choudhary; Gabor Csanyi; Ekin Dogus Cubuk; Bowen Deng; Ralf Drautz; Xiang Fu; Jonathan Godwin; Vasant Honavar; Olexandr Isayev; Anders Johansson; Boris Kozinsky; Stefano Martiniani; Shyue Ping Ong; Igor Poltavsky; KJ Schmidt; So Takamoto; Aidan Thompson; Julia Westermayr; Brandon M. Wood

doi:10.1016/j.cossms.2025.101214

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arXiv · 2503.09814

A practical guide to machine learning interatomic potentials -- Status and future

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Abstract

The rapid development and large body of literature on machine learning interatomic potentials (MLIPs) can make it difficult to know how to proceed for researchers who are not experts but wish to use these tools. The spirit of this review is to help such researchers by serving as a practical, accessible guide to the state-of-the-art in MLIPs. This review paper covers a broad range of topics related to MLIPs, including (i) central aspects of how and why MLIPs are enablers of many exciting advancements in molecular modeling, (ii) the main underpinnings of different types of MLIPs, including their basic structure and formalism, (iii) the potentially transformative impact of universal MLIPs for both organic and inorganic systems, including an overview of the most recent advances, capabilities, downsides, and potential applications of this nascent class of MLIPs, (iv) a practical guide for estimating and understanding the execution speed of MLIPs, including guidance for users based on hardware availability, type of MLIP used, and prospective simulation size and time, (v) a manual for what MLIP a user should choose for a given application by considering hardware resources, speed requirements, energy and force accuracy requirements, as well as guidance for choosing pre-trained potentials or fitting a new potential from scratch, (vi) discussion around MLIP infrastructure, including sources of training data, pre-trained potentials, and hardware resources for training, (vii) summary of some key limitations of present MLIPs and current approaches to mitigate such limitations, including methods of including long-range interactions, handling magnetic systems, and treatment of excited states, and finally (viii) we finish with some more speculative thoughts on what the future holds for the development and application of MLIPs over the next 3-10+ years.

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Ryan Jacobs, Dane Morgan, Siamak Attarian, Jun Meng, Chen Shen, Zhenghao Wu, Clare Yijia Xie, Julia H. Yang, Nongnuch Artrith, Ben Blaiszik, Gerbrand Ceder, Kamal Choudhary, Gabor Csanyi, Ekin Dogus Cubuk, Bowen Deng, Ralf Drautz, Xiang Fu, Jonathan Godwin, Vasant Honavar, Olexandr Isayev, Anders Johansson, Boris Kozinsky, Stefano Martiniani, Shyue Ping Ong, Igor Poltavsky, KJ Schmidt, So Takamoto, Aidan Thompson, Julia Westermayr, Brandon M. Wood. 2025-03-12. A practical guide to machine learning interatomic potentials -- Status and future. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cossms.2025.101214

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