Xiantao Li

Xiantao Li, Lin Lin, Jianfeng Lu

In this paper, we propose a new Green's function embedding method called PEXSI-$Σ$ for describing complex systems within the Kohn-Sham density functional theory (KSDFT) framework, after revisiting the physics literature of Green's function embedding methods from a numerical linear algebra perspective. The PEXSI-$Σ$ method approximates the density matrix using a set of nearly optimally chosen Green's functions evaluated at complex frequencies. For each Green's function, the complex boundary conditions are described by a self energy matrix $Σ$ constructed from a physical reference Green's function, which can be computed relatively easily. In the linear regime, such treatment of the boundary condition can be numerically exact. The support of the $Σ$ matrix is restricted to degrees of freedom near the boundary of computational domain, and can be interpreted as a frequency dependent surface potential. This makes it possible to perform KSDFT calculations with $\mathcal{O}(N^2)$ computational complexity, where $N$ is the number of atoms within the computational domain. Green's function embedding methods are also naturally compatible with atomistic Green's function methods for relaxing the atomic configuration outside the computational domain. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate the accuracy of the PEXSI-$Σ$ method for graphene with divacancy and dislocation dipole type of defects using the DFTB+ software package.

Xiantao Li

We present a new framework for coarse-graining molecular dynamics models for crystalline solids. The reduction method is based on a Galerkin projection to a subspace, whose dimension is much smaller than that of the full atomistic model. The subspace is expanded by adding more coarse-grain variables near the interface between lattice defects and the surrounding regions. This effectively minimizes reflection of phonons at the interface. In this approach, there is no need to pre-compute the memory function in the generalized Langevin equations, a typical model of interface conditions. Moreover, the variational formulation preserves the stability of mechanical equilibria.

Xiantao Li, Pingbing Ming

Numerical error induced by the "ghost forces" in the quasicontinuum method is studied in the context of dynamic problems. The error in the ({W}^{1,\infty}) norm is analyzed for the time scale (\mc{O}(\eps)) and the time scale (\mc{O}(1)) with $\eps$ being the lattice spacing.

Xiantao Li, Chunhao Wang

In this paper, we present efficient quantum algorithms that are exponentially faster than classical algorithms for solving the quantum optimal control problem. This problem involves finding the control variable that maximizes a physical quantity at time $T$, where the system is governed by a time-dependent Schrödinger equation. This type of control problem also has an intricate relation with machine learning. Our algorithms are based on a time-dependent Hamiltonian simulation method and a fast gradient-estimation algorithm. We also provide a comprehensive error analysis to quantify the total error from various steps, such as the finite-dimensional representation of the control function, the discretization of the Schrödinger equation, the numerical quadrature, and optimization. Our quantum algorithms require fault-tolerant quantum computers.

Daniele Venturi, Xiantao Li

We develop a new formulation of deep learning based on the Mori-Zwanzig (MZ) formalism of irreversible statistical mechanics. The new formulation is built upon the well-known duality between deep neural networks and discrete dynamical systems, and it allows us to directly propagate quantities of interest (conditional expectations and probability density functions) forward and backward through the network by means of exact linear operator equations. Such new equations can be used as a starting point to develop new effective parameterizations of deep neural networks, and provide a new framework to study deep-learning via operator theoretic methods. The proposed MZ formulation of deep learning naturally introduces a new concept, i.e., the memory of the neural network, which plays a fundamental role in low-dimensional modeling and parameterization. By using the theory of contraction mappings, we develop sufficient conditions for the memory of the neural network to decay with the number of layers. This allows us to rigorously transform deep networks into shallow ones, e.g., by reducing the number of neurons per layer (using projection operators), or by reducing the total number of layers (using the decay property of the memory operator).

Taehee Ko, Xiantao Li

Loss functions with non-isolated minima have emerged in several machine learning problems, creating a gap between theory and practice. In this paper, we formulate a new type of local convexity condition that is suitable to describe the behavior of loss functions near non-isolated minima. We show that such condition is general enough to encompass many existing conditions. In addition we study the local convergence of the SGD under this mild condition by adopting the notion of stochastic stability. The corresponding concentration inequalities from the convergence analysis help to interpret the empirical observation from some practical training results.

Chao Liang, Xiaolan Yuan, Xiantao Li

We derived a number of numerical methods to treat biomolecular systems with multiple time scales. Based on the splitting of the operators associated with the slow-varying and fast-varying forces, new multiple time-stepping (MTS) methods are obtained by eliminating the dominant terms in the error. These new methods can be viewed as a generalization of the impulse method. In the implementation of these methods, the long-range forces only need to be computed on the slow time scale, which reduces the computational cost considerably. Preliminary analysis for the energy conservation property is provided.

Guneykan Ozgul, Xiantao Li, Mehrdad Mahdavi et al.

We present quantum algorithms for sampling from non-logconcave probability distributions in the form of $π(x) \propto \exp(-βf(x))$. Here, $f$ can be written as a finite sum $f(x):= \frac{1}{N}\sum_{k=1}^N f_k(x)$. Our approach is based on quantum simulated annealing on slowly varying Markov chains derived from unadjusted Langevin algorithms, removing the necessity for function evaluations which can be computationally expensive for large data sets in mixture modeling and multi-stable systems. We also incorporate a stochastic gradient oracle that implements the quantum walk operators inexactly by only using mini-batch gradients. As a result, our stochastic gradient based algorithm only accesses small subsets of data points in implementing the quantum walk. One challenge of quantizing the resulting Markov chains is that they do not satisfy the detailed balance condition in general. Consequently, the mixing time of the algorithm cannot be expressed in terms of the spectral gap of the transition density, making the quantum algorithms nontrivial to analyze. To overcome these challenges, we first build a hypothetical Markov chain that is reversible, and also converges to the target distribution. Then, we quantified the distance between our algorithm's output and the target distribution by using this hypothetical chain as a bridge to establish the total complexity. Our quantum algorithms exhibit polynomial speedups in terms of both dimension and precision dependencies when compared to the best-known classical algorithms.

Guneykan Ozgul, Xiantao Li, Mehrdad Mahdavi et al.

We propose quantum algorithms that provide provable speedups for Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods commonly used for sampling from probability distributions of the form $π\propto e^{-f}$, where $f$ is a potential function. Our first approach considers Gibbs sampling for finite-sum potentials in the stochastic setting, employing an oracle that provides gradients of individual functions. In the second setting, we consider access only to a stochastic evaluation oracle, allowing simultaneous queries at two points of the potential function under the same stochastic parameter. By introducing novel techniques for stochastic gradient estimation, our algorithms improve the gradient and evaluation complexities of classical samplers, such as Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) and Langevin Monte Carlo (LMC) in terms of dimension, precision, and other problem-dependent parameters. Furthermore, we achieve quantum speedups in optimization, particularly for minimizing non-smooth and approximately convex functions that commonly appear in empirical risk minimization problems.

Yushuang Luo, Xiantao Li, Wenrui Hao

In this paper, we introduce a data-driven modeling approach for dynamics problems with latent variables. The state-space of the proposed model includes artificial latent variables, in addition to observed variables that can be fitted to a given data set. We present a model framework where the stability of the coupled dynamics can be easily enforced. The model is implemented by recurrent cells and trained using backpropagation through time. Numerical examples using benchmark tests from order reduction problems demonstrate the stability of the model and the efficiency of the recurrent cell implementation. As applications, two fluid-structure interaction problems are considered to illustrate the accuracy and predictive capability of the model.

He Zhang, John Harlim, Xiantao Li

This paper studies the theoretical underpinnings of machine learning of ergodic Itô diffusions. The objective is to understand the convergence properties of the invariant statistics when the underlying system of stochastic differential equations (SDEs) is empirically estimated with a supervised regression framework. Using the perturbation theory of ergodic Markov chains and the linear response theory, we deduce a linear dependence of the errors of one-point and two-point invariant statistics on the error in the learning of the drift and diffusion coefficients. More importantly, our study shows that the usual $L^2$-norm characterization of the learning generalization error is insufficient for achieving this linear dependence result. We find that sufficient conditions for such a linear dependence result are through learning algorithms that produce a uniformly Lipschitz and consistent estimator in the hypothesis space that retains certain characteristics of the drift coefficients, such as the usual linear growth condition that guarantees the existence of solutions of the underlying SDEs. We examine these conditions on two well-understood learning algorithms: the kernel-based spectral regression method and the shallow random neural networks with the ReLU activation function.

Jingrun Chen, Carlos J. García-Cervera, Xiantao Li

A common observation from an atomistic to continuum coupling method is that the error is often generated and concentrated near the interface, where the two models are combined. In this paper, a new method is proposed to suppress the error at the interface, and as a consequence, the overall accuracy is improved. The method is motivated by formulating the molecular mechanics model as a two-stage minimization problem. In particular, it is demonstrated that the error at the interface can be considerably reduced when new basis functions are introduced in a Galerkin projection formalism. The improvement of the accuracy is illustrated by two examples. Further, the comparison to some quasicontinuum-type methods is provided.