Attention is not all you need: Comparing the performance of transformers and CNNs in classifying space groups from powder diffraction data

There has been a great deal of work in accelerating the determination of space group from powder diffraction data. In this work, I discuss our detailed study on the performance of CNNs and Transformers. In particular, I discuss the role of extinction groups, architecture, instrument resolution, and other effects. Our performance is state-of-the-art on synthetic data. I will also discuss our performance on actual diffraction data.