Application of machine-learning methods to solid-state chemistry: ferromagnetism in transition metal alloys

Machine-learning methods are a collection of techniques for building predictive models from experimental data. The algorithms are problem-independent: the chemistry and physics of the problem being studied are contained in the descriptors used to represent the known data. The application of a variety of machine-learning methods to the prediction of ferromagnetism in ordered and disordered transition metal alloys is presented. Applying a decision tree algorithm to build a predictive model for ordered phases results in a model that is 100% accurate. The same algorithm achieves 99% accuracy when trained on a data set containing both ordered and disordered phases. Details of the descriptor sets for both applications are also presented. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.