A regression-based feature selection study of the Curie temperature of transition-metal rare-earth compounds: prediction and understanding

The Curie temperature ($T_C$) of binary alloy compounds consisting of 3$d$ transition-metal and 4$f$ rare-earth elements is analyzed by a machine learning technique. We first demonstrate that nonlinear regression can accurately reproduce $T_C$ of the compounds. The prediction accuracy for $T_C$ is maximized when five to ten descriptors are selected, with the rare-earth concentration being the most relevant. We then discuss an attempt to utilize a regression-based model selection technique to learn the relation between the descriptors and the actuation mechanism of the corresponding physical phenomenon, i.e., $T_C$ in the present case.