We present a simple introduction to the decision tree algorithm using some examples from nuclear physics. We show how to improve the accuracy of the classical liquid drop nuclear mass model by performing feature engineering with a decision tree. Finally, we apply the method to the Duflo–Zuker model showing that, despite their simplicity, decision trees are capable of improving the description of nuclear masses using a limited number of free parameters.

中文翻译：

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核物理学中的树木和森林

我们使用来自核物理的一些示例对决策树算法进行简单介绍。我们展示了如何通过执行带有决策树的特征工程来提高经典液滴核质量模型的准确性。最后，我们将该方法应用于Duflo-Zuker模型，结果表明，尽管决策树简单，但决策树仍能够使用有限数量的自由参数来改进对核质量的描述。