A Local Deep Learning Method for Solving High Order Partial Differential Equations

Abstract: At present, deep learning based methods are being employed to resolve the computational challenges of high-dimensional partial differential equations (PDEs). But the computation of the high order derivatives of neural networks is costly, and high order derivatives lack robustness for training purposes. We propose a novel approach to solving PDEs with high order derivatives by simultaneously approximating the function value and derivatives. We introduce intermediate variables to rewrite the PDEs into a system of low order differential equations as what is done in the local discontinuous Galerkin method. The intermediate variables and the solutions to the PDEs are simultaneously approximated by a multi-output deep neural network. By taking the residual of the system as a loss function, we can optimize the network parameters to approximate the solution. The whole process relies on low order derivatives. Numerous numerical examples are carried out to demonstrate that our local deep learning is efficient, robust, flexible, and is particularly well-suited for high-dimensional PDEs with high order derivatives.