Machine learning symmetry discovery for integrable Hamiltonian dynamics
Phys. Rev. E 113, 025302 – Published 5 February, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/jl75-7ynx
Abstract
We propose a data-driven machine learning symmetry discovery (MLSD) framework for identifying continuous symmetry generators and their Lie-algebraic structure directly from phase-space trajectory data expressed in canonical coordinates. MLSD parameterizes candidate conserved quantities with neural networks and learns antisymmetric structure coefficients by enforcing Poisson-bracket closure, supplemented by a weak independence regularizer. We validate MLSD on two integrable benchmark systems—the three-dimensional Kepler problem and the three-dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator—recovering the expected non-Abelian algebras [respectively SO(4) and SU(3)] up to basis transformations. This work focuses on integrable benchmark dynamics, where global conserved quantities are well defined and admit compact representations learnable from canonical-coordinate trajectories. Extending symmetry discovery to mixed or chaotic phase-space regimes is an important direction for future work.