{"id":96204,"date":"2019-09-13T20:22:30","date_gmt":"2019-09-14T03:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/solving-the-schrodinger-equation-with-deep-learning"},"modified":"2019-09-13T20:22:30","modified_gmt":"2019-09-14T03:22:30","slug":"solving-the-schrodinger-equation-with-deep-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/solving-the-schrodinger-equation-with-deep-learning","title":{"rendered":"Solving the Schr\u00f6dinger equation with deep learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

The code used below is on GitHub<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In this project, we\u2019ll be solving a problem familiar to any physics undergrad \u2014 using the Schr\u00f6dinger equation to find the quantum ground state of a particle in a 1-dimensional box with a potential. However, we\u2019re going to tackle this old standby with a new method: deep learning. Specifically, we\u2019ll use the TensorFlow package to set up a neural network and then train it on random potential functions and their numerically calculated solutions.<\/p>\n

Why reinvent the wheel (ground state)? Sure, it\u2019s fun to see a new tool added to the physics problem-solving toolkit, and I needed the practice with TensorFlow. But there\u2019s a far more compelling answer. We know basically everything there is to know about this topic already. The neural network, however, doesn\u2019t know any physics. Crudely speaking, it just finds patterns. Suppose we examine the relative strength of connections between input neurons and output. The structure therein could give us some insight into how the universe \u201cthinks\u201d about this problem. Later, we can apply deep learning to a physics problem where the underlying theory is unknown. By looking at the innards of that neural network, we might learn something new about fundamental physical principles that would otherwise remain obscured from our view. Therein lies the true power of this approach: peering into the mind of the universe itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The code used below is on GitHub. In this project, we\u2019ll be solving a problem familiar to any physics undergrad \u2014 using the Schr\u00f6dinger equation to find the quantum ground state of a particle in a 1-dimensional box with a potential. However, we\u2019re going to tackle this old standby with a new method: deep learning. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,48,1617,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-information-science","category-particle-physics","category-quantum-physics","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}