  Deep learning has the potential to revolutionize quantum chemistry as it is
ideally suited to learn representations for structured data and speed up the
exploration of chemical space. While convolutional neural networks have proven
to be the first choice for images, audio and video data, the atoms in molecules
are not restricted to a grid. Instead, their precise locations contain
essential physical information, that would get lost if discretized. Thus, we
propose to use continuous-filter convolutional layers to be able to model local
correlations without requiring the data to lie on a grid. We apply those layers
in SchNet: a novel deep learning architecture modeling quantum interactions in
molecules. We obtain a joint model for the total energy and interatomic forces
that follows fundamental quantum-chemical principles. This includes
rotationally invariant energy predictions and a smooth, differentiable
potential energy surface. Our architecture achieves state-of-the-art
performance for benchmarks of equilibrium molecules and molecular dynamics
trajectories. Finally, we introduce a more challenging benchmark with chemical
and structural variations that suggests the path for further work.
