arXiv Machine Learning

Neural network surrogates with uncertainty quantification for inverse problems in partial differential equations

arXiv:2606. 20417v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Inverse problems for differential equations arise throughout science and engineering, where one seeks to infer unknown model parameters from noisy or incomplete observations.

arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 18

PosteriorBench: From Point Estimates to Posterior Matching in Evaluating Generative Inverse Solvers

PosteriorBench is a new benchmark that evaluates how well generative inverse solvers recover full posterior distributions rather than just a single reconstruction. It tests four physics-based inverse problems—Darcy flow inversion, Poisson source recovery, carbon capture and storage, and light transport material inference—using high-fidelity reference posteriors generated by rejection sampling and MCMC. The benchmark employs five metrics (posterior-mean error, posterior-standard-deviation error, maximum mean discrepancy, sliced Wasserstein distance, and radially averaged power-spectrum error) to assess pointwise accuracy, uncertainty, distributional alignment, and global frequency fidelity, revealing significant distribution-matching gaps in current solvers and highlighting the importance of neural operators, guidance weights, and generation noise for posterior-variance calibration.

By Jiachen Yao, Zi-Siang Hsu, Xi Deng, Aditi Gupta, Xin Ju, Sally M Benson, Gege Wen, Anima Anandkumar
arXiv AI
Aug 28

Active Diffusion-Based Inference for Ill-Posed Inverse Problems under Incomplete Priors

The paper introduces an active diffusion-based inverse problem solver that trains a diffusion model to map between parameter and observable spaces. By iteratively detecting and correcting model misspecification through posterior uncertainty, the method can discover and learn the correct parameter region even when initial training bounds exclude the true parameters. The authors demonstrate the solver on a toy inverse problem with infinite solutions and on parameterizing quantum correlation functions for a Quantum Chromodynamics analysis of nucleon structure.

By Jitao Xu, Nobuo Sato, Yaohang Li
arXiv AI
Aug 28

Physics-Informed Stochastic Configuration Machine: A Backpropagation-Free Neural Network with Fast Training for Nonlinear Differential Equations

The paper introduces the Physics-Informed Stochastic Configuration Machine (PI‑SCM), a backpropagation‑free neural network designed for solving nonlinear differential equations. By analytically evaluating local Jacobians, PI‑SCM linearizes the physical loss, enabling optimal weight determination through generalized linear least squares and avoiding iterative nonlinear optimization. The authors present a progressive algorithmic suite—PI‑SC‑I, PI‑SC‑II, and PI‑SC‑III—prove their universal approximation properties, and show through experiments that PI‑SCM achieves high‑fidelity predictions and parameter identification while accelerating training by orders of magnitude compared to standard PINNs.

By Yuehao Song (School of Automation, Central South University, Changsha, China), Zhong Chen (School of Automation, Central South University, Changsha, China), Lihui Cen (School of Automation, Central South University, Changsha, China), Liang Wu (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA), Kai Zhang (State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, China)
arXiv Statistics ML
Sep 14

PDE-constrained inverse problems at the $\sqrt{n}$ rate via debiased physics-informed neural networks

The paper introduces a two‑step debiased estimation method for PDE‑constrained inverse problems where the PDE solution is approximated by Physics‑Informed Neural Networks (PINNs). By combining neural‑network‑based nonparametric estimation with an influence‑function bias correction, the authors achieve a √{n}-consistent, asymptotically normal estimator without undersmoothing the neural network. The approach is extended to Bayesian inference, yielding a posterior that contracts at the √{n}-rate with asymptotic covariance matching the frequentist estimator, and the analysis also provides near‑minimax rates for estimating nonparametric regression functions and their derivatives in Sobolev spaces.

By Yves Atchade, Debarghya Mukherjee
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 1

Sensitivity-Constrained Neural Operators for Data-Efficient Forward and Inverse Modeling of Partial Differential Equation Systems

The paper introduces Sensitivity‑Constrained Neural Operators (SC‑NOs), which augment standard neural operator training with sampled Jacobian supervision from differentiable solvers or discrete adjoints. By matching selected sensitivities during training, SC‑NOs improve forward prediction accuracy and significantly enhance gradient‑based inverse reconstruction for distributed fields. Experiments on advection–diffusion, RANS–Spalart–Allmaras, high‑dimensional gridded inputs, and a shallow‑water tsunami source‑inversion case demonstrate that SC‑NOs achieve a better accuracy–cost trade‑off and enable near‑real‑time wave‑propagation forecasting from sparse observations.

By Abdolmehdi Behroozi, Chaopeng Shen, Daniel Kifer, Kathryn Lawson