Unveil the unseen: Exploit information hidden in noise
This work addresses the challenge of leveraging uncertainty in predictions for applications in physical sciences and beyond, representing a novel method rather than an incremental improvement.
The paper tackles the problem of noise and uncertainty in machine learning by developing an architecture that extracts information from noise to improve predictions, demonstrating its effectiveness in predicting a phase transition in a crystal and improving diffraction amplitude predictions for droplets.
Noise and uncertainty are usually the enemy of machine learning, noise in training data leads to uncertainty and inaccuracy in the predictions. However, we develop a machine learning architecture that extracts crucial information out of the noise itself to improve the predictions. The phenomenology computes and then utilizes uncertainty in one target variable to predict a second target variable. We apply this formalism to PbZr$_{0.7}$Sn$_{0.3}$O$_{3}$ crystal, using the uncertainty in dielectric constant to extrapolate heat capacity, correctly predicting a phase transition that otherwise cannot be extrapolated. For the second example -- single-particle diffraction of droplets -- we utilize the particle count together with its uncertainty to extrapolate the ground truth diffraction amplitude, delivering better predictions than when we utilize only the particle count. Our generic formalism enables the exploitation of uncertainty in machine learning, which has a broad range of applications in the physical sciences and beyond.