@article{ZhangSchuette2025, author = {Zhang, Wei and Sch{\"u}tte, Christof}, title = {On finding optimal collective variables for complex systems by minimizing the deviation between effective and full dynamics}, volume = {23}, journal = {Multiscale Modeling and Simulation}, number = {2}, arxiv = {http://arxiv.org/abs/2405.02001}, doi = {10.1137/24M1658917}, pages = {924 -- 958}, year = {2025}, abstract = {This paper is concerned with collective variables, or reaction coordinates, that map a discrete-in-time Markov process X_n in R^d to a (much) smaller dimension k≪d. We define the effective dynamics under a given collective variable map ξ as the best Markovian representation of X_n under ξ. The novelty of the paper is that it gives strict criteria for selecting optimal collective variables via the properties of the effective dynamics. In particular, we show that the transition density of the effective dynamics of the optimal collective variable solves a relative entropy minimization problem from certain family of densities to the transition density of X_n. We also show that many transfer operator-based data-driven numerical approaches essentially learn quantities of the effective dynamics. Furthermore, we obtain various error estimates for the effective dynamics in approximating dominant timescales / eigenvalues and transition rates of the original process X_n and how optimal collective variables minimize these errors. Our results contribute to the development of theoretical tools for the understanding of complex dynamical systems, e.g. molecular kinetics, on large timescales. These results shed light on the relations among existing data-driven numerical approaches for identifying good collective variables, and they also motivate the development of new methods.}, language = {en} } @article{LiuZhangSchuetteetal.2025, author = {Liu, Zichen and Zhang, Wei and Sch{\"u}tte, Christof and Li, Tiejun}, title = {Riemannian denoising diffusion probabilistic models}, journal = {Communications in Mathematical Sciences}, arxiv = {http://arxiv.org/abs/2505.04338}, year = {2025}, abstract = {We propose Riemannian Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models (RDDPMs) for learning distributions on submanifolds of Euclidean space that are level sets of functions, including most of the manifolds relevant to applications. Existing methods for generative modeling on manifolds rely on substantial geometric information such as geodesic curves or eigenfunctions of the Laplace-Beltrami operator and, as a result, they are limited to manifolds where such information is available. In contrast, our method, built on a projection scheme, can be applied to more general manifolds, as it only requires being able to evaluate the value and the first order derivatives of the function that defines the submanifold. We provide a theoretical analysis of our method in the continuous-time limit, which elucidates the connection between our RDDPMs and score-based generative models on manifolds. The capability of our method is demonstrated on datasets from previous studies and on new datasets sampled from two high-dimensional manifolds, i.e. SO(10) and the configuration space of molecular system alanine dipeptide with fixed dihedral angle.}, language = {en} } @article{vonKleistSchuetteZhang2018, author = {von Kleist, Max and Sch{\"u}tte, Christof and Zhang, Wei}, title = {Statistical analysis of the first passage path ensemble of jump processes}, volume = {170}, journal = {Journal of Statistical Physics}, doi = {10.1007/s10955-017-1949-x}, pages = {809 -- 843}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The transition mechanism of jump processes between two different subsets in state space reveals important dynamical information of the processes and therefore has attracted considerable attention in the past years. In this paper, we study the first passage path ensemble of both discrete-time and continuous-time jump processes on a finite state space. The main approach is to divide each first passage path into nonreactive and reactive segments and to study them separately. The analysis can be applied to jump processes which are non-ergodic, as well as continuous-time jump processes where the waiting time distributions are non-exponential. In the particular case that the jump processes are both Markovian and ergodic, our analysis elucidates the relations between the study of the first passage paths and the study of the transition paths in transition path theory. We provide algorithms to numerically compute statistics of the first passage path ensemble. The computational complexity of these algorithms scales with the complexity of solving a linear system, for which efficient methods are available. Several examples demonstrate the wide applicability of the derived results across research areas.}, language = {en} } @article{ZhangSchuette2023, author = {Zhang, Wei and Sch{\"u}tte, Christof}, title = {Understanding recent deep-learning techniques for identifying collective variables of molecular dynamics}, volume = {23}, journal = {Proceedings in Applied Mathematics and Mechanics}, number = {4}, doi = {10.1002/pamm.202300189}, year = {2023}, abstract = {High-dimensional metastable molecular dynamics (MD) can often be characterised by a few features of the system, that is, collective variables (CVs). Thanks to the rapid advance in the area of machine learning and deep learning, various deep learning-based CV identification techniques have been developed in recent years, allowing accurate modelling and efficient simulation of complex molecular systems. In this paper, we look at two different categories of deep learning-based approaches for finding CVs, either by computing leading eigenfunctions of transfer operator associated to the underlying dynamics, or by learning an autoencoder via minimisation of reconstruction error. We present a concise overview of the mathematics behind these two approaches and conduct a comparative numerical study of these two approaches on illustrative examples.}, language = {en} } @misc{HartmannRichterSchuetteetal.2017, author = {Hartmann, Carsten and Richter, Lorenz and Sch{\"u}tte, Christof and Zhang, Wei}, title = {Variational characterization of free energy: Theory and algorithms}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-65045}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The article surveys and extends variational formulations of the thermodynamic free energy and discusses their information-theoretic content from the perspective of mathematical statistics. We revisit the well-known Jarzynski equality for nonequilibrium free energy sampling within the framework of importance sampling and Girsanov change-of-measure transformations. The implications of the different variational formulations for designing efficient stochastic optimization and nonequilibrium simulation algorithms for computing free energies are discussed and illustrated.}, language = {en} } @article{DonatiSchuetteWeber2025, author = {Donati, Luca and Sch{\"u}tte, Christof and Weber, Marcus}, title = {The Kramers turnover in terms of a macro-state projection on phase space}, volume = {123}, journal = {Molecular Physics}, number = {7-8: Giovanni Ciccotti: A Renaissance Physicist}, publisher = {Taylor \& Francis}, doi = {10.1080/00268976.2024.2356748}, pages = {e2356748}, year = {2025}, abstract = {We have investigated how Langevin dynamics is affected by the friction coefficient using the novel algorithm ISOKANN, which combines the transfer operator approach with modern machine learning techniques. ISOKANN describes the dynamics in terms of an invariant subspace projection of the Koopman operator defined in the entire state space, avoiding approximations due to dimensionality reduction and discretization. Our results are consistent with the Kramers turnover and show that in the low and moderate friction regimes, metastable macro-states and transition rates are defined in phase space, not only in position space.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{SunkaraRostamivonTycowiczetal.2026, author = {Sunkara, Vikram and Rostami, Atefe and von Tycowicz, Christoph and Sch{\"u}tte, Christof}, title = {Stop throwing away your Decoder; extract the learnt local coordinate system using Latent-XAI}, booktitle = {The 4th World Conference on Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI-2026)}, year = {2026}, language = {en} } @article{WehlitzPavliotisSchuetteetal.2026, author = {Wehlitz, Nathalie and Pavliotis, Grigorios and Sch{\"u}tte, Christof and Winkelmann, Stefanie}, title = {Data-driven Reduction of Transfer Operators for Particle Clustering Dynamics}, arxiv = {http://arxiv.org/abs/2601.02932}, year = {2026}, abstract = {We develop an operator-based framework to coarse-grain interacting particle systems that exhibit clustering dynamics. Starting from the particle-based transfer operator, we first construct a sequence of reduced representations: the operator is projected onto concentrations and then further reduced by representing the concentration dynamics on a geometric low-dimensional manifold and an adapted finite-state discretization. The resulting coarse-grained transfer operator is finally estimated from dynamical simulation data by inferring the transition probabilities between the Markov states. Applied to systems with multichromatic and Morse interaction potentials, the reduced model reproduces key features of the clustering process, including transitions between cluster configurations and the emergence of metastable states. Spectral analysis and transition-path analysis of the estimated operator reveal implied time scales and dominant transition pathways, providing an interpretable and efficient description of particle-clustering dynamics.}, language = {en} } @article{SchuetteSikorskiKresseetal.2026, author = {Sch{\"u}tte, Christof and Sikorski, Alexander and Kresse, Jakob and Weber, Marcus}, title = {On-the-Fly Lifting of Coarse Reaction-Coordinate Paths to Full-Dimensional Transition Path Ensembles}, arxiv = {http://arxiv.org/abs/2603.23266}, doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2603.23266}, year = {2026}, abstract = {Effective dynamics on a low-dimensional collective-variable (CV) or latent space can be simulated far more cheaply than the underlying high-dimensional stochastic system, but exploiting such coarse predictions requires lifting: turning a coarse CV trajectory into dynamically consistent full-dimensional states and path ensembles, without relying on global sampling of invariant or conditional fiber measures. We present a local, on-the-fly lifting strategy based on guided full-system trajectories. First an effective model in CV space is used to obtain a coarse reference trajectory. Then, an ensemble of full-dimensional trajectories is generated from a guided version of the original dynamics, where the guidance steers the trajectory to track the CV reference path. Because guidance biases the path distribution, we correct it via pathwise Girsanov reweighting, yielding a correct-by-construction importance-sampling approximation of the conditional law of the uncontrolled dynamics. We further connect the approach to stochastic optimal control, clarifying how coarse models can inform variance-reducing guidance for rare-event quantities. Numerical experiments demonstrate that inexpensive coarse transition paths can be converted into realistic full-system transition pathways (including barrier crossings and detours) and can accelerate estimation of transition pathways and statistics while providing minimal bias through weighted ensembles.}, language = {en} }