On the Convergence of Physics Informed Neural Networks for Linear Second-Order Elliptic and Parabolic Type PDEs
Year: 2020
Author: Yeonjong Shin, Jérôme Darbon, George Em Karniadakis
Communications in Computational Physics, Vol. 28 (2020), Iss. 5 : pp. 2042–2074
Abstract
Physics informed neural networks (PINNs) are deep learning based techniques for solving partial differential equations (PDEs) encountered in computational
science and engineering. Guided by data and physical laws, PINNs find a neural network that approximates the solution to a system of PDEs. Such a neural network is
obtained by minimizing a loss function in which any prior knowledge of PDEs and
data are encoded. Despite its remarkable empirical success in one, two or three dimensional problems, there is little theoretical justification for PINNs.
As the number of data grows, PINNs generate a sequence of minimizers which correspond to a sequence of neural networks. We want to answer the question: Does the sequence of minimizers converge to the solution to the PDE? We consider two classes of
PDEs: linear second-order elliptic and parabolic. By adapting the Schauder approach
and the maximum principle, we show that the sequence of minimizers strongly converges to the PDE solution in $C^0$. Furthermore, we show that if each minimizer satisfies
the initial/boundary conditions, the convergence mode becomes $H^1$. Computational
examples are provided to illustrate our theoretical findings. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first theoretical work that shows the consistency of PINNs.
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Journal Article Details
Publisher Name: Global Science Press
Language: English
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4208/cicp.OA-2020-0193
Communications in Computational Physics, Vol. 28 (2020), Iss. 5 : pp. 2042–2074
Published online: 2020-01
AMS Subject Headings: Global Science Press
Copyright: COPYRIGHT: © Global Science Press
Pages: 33
Keywords: Physics informed neural networks convergence Hölder regularization elliptic and parabolic PDEs Schauder approach.