Blending Neural Operators and Relaxation Methods in PDE Numerical Solvers

Abstract: Neural networks suffer from spectral bias having difficulty in representing the high frequency components of a function while relaxation methods can resolve high frequencies efficiently but stall at moderate to low frequencies. We exploit the weaknesses of the two approaches by combining them synergistically to develop a fast numerical solver of partial differential equations (PDEs) at scale. Specifically, we propose HINTS, a hybrid, iterative, numerical, and transferable solver by integrating a Deep Operator Network (DeepONet) with standard relaxation methods, leading to parallel efficiency and algorithmic scalability for a wide class of PDEs, not tractable with existing monolithic solvers. HINTS balances the convergence behavior across the spectrum of eigenmodes by utilizing the spectral bias of DeepONet, resulting in a uniform convergence rate and hence exceptional performance of the hybrid solver overall. Moreover, HINTS applies to large-scale, multidimensional systems, it is flexible with regards to discretizations, computational domain, and boundary conditions.