A level-wise training scheme for learning neural multigrid smoothers with application to integral equations
Authors: Lingfeng Li, Yin King Chu, Raymond Chan, Justin Wan
Organizations: Hetao Institute of Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. · Department of Mathematics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China. · Department of Data Science, Department of Operations and Risk Management,Lingnan University, Tuen Mun, Hong Kong, China. · David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Convolution-type integral equations commonly occur in signal processing and image processing. Discretizing these equations yields large and ill-conditioned linear systems. While the classic multigrid method is effective for solving linear systems derived from partial differential equations (PDE) problems, it fails to solve integral equations because its smoothers, which are implemented as conventional relaxation methods, are ineffective in reducing high-frequency components in the errors. We propose a novel neural multigrid scheme where learned neural operators replace classical smoothers. Unlike classical smoothers, these operators are trained offline. Once trained, the neural smoothers generalize to new right-hand-side vectors without retraining, making it an efficient solver. We design level-wise loss functions incorporating spectral filtering to emulate the multigrid frequency decomposition principle, ensuring each operator focuses on solving distinct high-frequency spectral bands. Although we focus on integral equations, the framework is generalizable to all kinds of problems, including PDE problems. Our experiments demonstrate superior efficiency over classical solvers and robust convergence across varying problem sizes and regularization weights.
Figures & tables
Figure 1: Plot of 1−μϕ for ϕ∈[−π,π] when ω=1/2 .
Figure 2: Eigenvectors corresponding to different eigenvalues of the linear system discretized from the Poisson equation (first row) and the Integral equation (second row).
Figure 3: Error vectors when solving different linear systems using the Jacobi method.
Figure 4: Graph illustration of a V-cycle multigrid scheme with L=3
Figure 5: Explanation of the frequency domain decomposition (L=3).
Figure 6: Plot of ml for l=1,2,3 .
Figure 7: The graph illustration of the neural multigrid cycle for one-dimensional problems when L=3 .
Figure 8: Plot of M^l for l=1,2,3 .
α=10−4
α=10−5
α=10−6
proposed method
n=256
13.7(0.17s) ±1.8
13.7(0.18s) ±2.5
14.6(0.19s) ±0.8
n=512
13.3(0.21s) ±0.6
13.1(0.20s) ±0.9
14.2(0.24s) ±0.6
n=1024
14.0(0.28s) ±1.2
13.4(0.27s) ±1.7
14.4(0.30s) ±1.0
multigrid method
n=256
9556(7s) ±139
27423(16s) ±542
35375(21s) ±699
n=512
9570(16s) ±87
27484(45s) ±330
35455(58s) ±425
n=1024
9589(56s) ±73
27600(162s) ±286
35604(210s) ±369
Table 1: The average number of iterations and evaluation time required for solving the one-dimensional integral equation.
Figure 9: Magnitude spectrums of unsolved errors at the fine grid after applying neural smoothers at each level.
α=10−4
α=10−5
α=10−6
proposed method
n=256
13.2(0.15s) ±1.2
13.8(0.16s) ±0.9
14.4(0.19s) ±1.3
n=512
13.4(0.21s) ±1.3
14.0(0.23s) ±1.1
14.5(0.25s) ±0.8
n=1024
13.4(0.27s) ±1.1
13.4(0.26s) ±1.0
14.7(0.32s) ±1.3
multigrid method
n=256
5130(4s) ± 173
20325(13s) ± 1034
31707(21s) ± 1613
n=512
5184(9s) ± 121
20603(36s) ± 728
32140(56s) ± 1136
n=1024
5207(30s) ± 70
20742(118s) ± 420
32355(184s) ± 655
Table 2: The average number of iterations and evaluation time required for solving the one-dimensional integral equation.
n=256
n=512
n=1024
proposed method
14.0(0.17s) ±0.6
13.0(0.21s) ±1.8
13.7(0.28s) ±1.8
multigrid method
8(0.00s) ±0
8(0.01s) ±0
8(0.04s) ±0
Table 3: The average number of iterations (cycles) and evaluation time required for solving the one-dimensional PDE
α=10−3
α=10−4
α=10−5
proposed method
n=256
11.3 (4s) ±2.2
13.8 (5s) ±3.0
14.2 (5s) ±3.7
n=512
12.7 (12s) ±4.5
14.3 (13s) ±2.4
15 (14s) ±4.5
n=1024
13.6(55s) ±4.3
14.2(59s) ±3.18
14.6(61s) ±2.2
multigrid method
n=256
1140 (17s) ±5
9510 (2min) ±59
71263 (18min) ±703
n=512
1145 (57s) ±4
9555 (8min) ±34
77288 (1hr) ±397
n=1024
1146 (4min) ±2
9577 (33min) ±18
77310 (4hr) ±207
Table 4: The average number of iterations and evaluation time required for solving the two-dimensional integral equation.
Figure 10: Difference between E^l and E^l−1 for l=1,2,3,4 .
α=10−4
α=10−5
α=10−6
trained by the level-wise losses ( 6 )
L′=2
13.5±1.4
13.4±2.0
18.5±6.3
L′=3
12.5±0.8
11.7±1.3
12.6±1.7
L′=4
14.0 ±1.2
13.4 ±1.7
14.4 ±1.0
trained by the combined loss ( 4 )
L′=2
30.3±12.2
32.6±9.7
32.4±5.8
L′=3
15.4±6.7
24.7±7.6
24.2±5.1
L′=4
16.8±5.5
19.4±6.5
16.6±6.3
Table 5: The average number of cycles when training with different loss functions
Partial differential equations (PDEs) govern complex systems, yet neural operators often struggle to efficiently capture the long-range, nonlocal interactions inherent in their solution maps. We introduce Spectral Filtering Operator (SFO), a neural operator that parameterizes integral kernels using the Universal Spectral Basis (USB), a fixed, global orthonormal basis derived from the eigenmodes of the Hilbert matrix in spectral filtering theory. Motivated by our theoretical finding that the discrete Green's functions of shift-invariant PDE discretizations exhibit spatial Linear Dynamical System (LDS) structure, we prove that these kernels admit compact approximations in the USB. By learning only the spectral coefficients of rapidly decaying eigenvalues, SFO achieves a highly efficient representation. Across six benchmarks, including reaction-diffusion, fluid dynamics, and 3D electromagnetics, SFO achieves state-of-the-art accuracy, reducing error by up to 40% relative to strong baselines while using substantially fewer parameters.
Noam Koren, Rafael Moschopoulos, Kira Radinsky +1
Department of Computer Science Technion - Israel Institute of Technology · Department of Computer Science Princeton University
Solving heterogeneous Helmholtz equations at high wavenumbers remains challenging because the discretized operator is indefinite, pollution degrades phase accuracy, and scalar coarse-grid correction can discard the local phase and propagation-direction information carried by oscillatory errors. We propose Multi-channel Multigrid (McMg), a learned phase-space multigrid preconditioner for heterogeneous Helmholtz equations. Rather than predicting the solution directly, McMg maps residuals to corrections within an iterative framework. Its central idea is to coarsen physical space while retaining unresolved local wave information in the channel dimension: each coarse node carries a learned packet of amplitude, phase, direction, and scattering coefficients rather than a single scalar unknown. The architecture combines linear multi-channel transfer operators with locally adaptive stencils, neural PDE operators, and medium-dependent smoothers whose coefficients are generated from the wave speed. For a fixed medium, the V-cycle is linear in the residual; nonlinear physical features are computed once in a setup phase and cached, so each online iteration reduces to convolutions with fixed coefficients. We further study generalization across scales. Models trained on small domains transfer directly to larger domains and higher effective wavenumbers, and a Layer-by-Layer Progressive Finetuning (LLPF) strategy improves large-domain scalability by adding new coarse levels while finetuning only the newly introduced parameters. Numerical experiments on high-frequency, high-contrast, and large-scale three-dimensional problems demonstrate that McMg requires substantially fewer iterations and less wall-clock time than strong classical baselines, while consistently outperforming existing neural preconditioners.
Jiwei Jia, Xinliang Liu, Juntao Wang +1
School of Mathematics, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China · Shenzhen Loop Area Institute, Shenzhen 518038, China · Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China +1
We propose HIN-LRI, a hybrid framework that augments a classical numerical solver with a neural operator trained to correct the solver's structured truncation error. A base low-regularity integrator provides a consistent first-order approximation to nonlinear dispersive PDEs, while a lightweight neural network, operating on a low-dimensional latent manifold, learns the residual defect that analytical methods cannot close. An explicit time-step scaling on the neural correction ensures that its Lipschitz contribution remains O(τ), yielding a Gronwall stability factor bounded uniformly in the step size and independent of the spatial resolution. The network is trained end-to-end through a solver-in-the-loop objective that unrolls the full iteration and penalises trajectory error in a Bourgain-type norm, aligning learning with multi-step solver dynamics rather than isolated one-step targets. Under stated assumptions, the global error satisfies C(εnet+δ)τγln(1/τ), where εnet measures the network approximation quality and δ the training shortfall. Experiments on three dispersive benchmarks with rough data show that HIN-LRI improves accuracy over analytical integrators, splitting methods, and neural PDE surrogates, with stable spatial refinement, effective out-of-distribution transfer, and modest online overhead.
Zhangyong Liang, Huanhuan Gao
National Center for Applied Mathematics Tianjin University Tianjin, 300072, China · School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Jilin University Jilin University Changchun, 130025, China