1. Learning continuous models for continuous physics.
- Author
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Krishnapriyan, Aditi S., Queiruga, Alejandro F., Erichson, N. Benjamin, and Mahoney, Michael W.
- Subjects
MACHINE learning ,ENGINEERING models ,NUMERICAL analysis ,DYNAMICAL systems ,EXTRAPOLATION ,SYSTEM dynamics ,PHYSICS - Abstract
Dynamical systems that evolve continuously over time are ubiquitous throughout science and engineering. Machine learning (ML) provides data-driven approaches to model and predict the dynamics of such systems. A core issue with this approach is that ML models are typically trained on discrete data, using ML methodologies that are not aware of underlying continuity properties. This results in models that often do not capture any underlying continuous dynamics—either of the system of interest, or indeed of any related system. To address this challenge, we develop a convergence test based on numerical analysis theory. Our test verifies whether a model has learned a function that accurately approximates an underlying continuous dynamics. Models that fail this test fail to capture relevant dynamics, rendering them of limited utility for many scientific prediction tasks; while models that pass this test enable both better interpolation and better extrapolation in multiple ways. Our results illustrate how principled numerical analysis methods can be coupled with existing ML training/testing methodologies to validate models for science and engineering applications. Many challenging problems in science and engineering rely on the study of dynamical systems that evolve continuously in time, and yet this feature proves difficult to be captured reliably using modern machine learning (ML) models. This paper develops a convergence test based on numerical analysis and illustrates how this methodology can be combined with existing ML techniques to validate models for science and engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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