Adaptive-Distribution Randomized Neural Networks for PDEs: A Low-Dimensional Distribution-Learning Framework
Authors: You Yang, Fei Wang
Organizations: School of Mathematics and Statistics, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710049, China. · School of Mathematics and Statistics & State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710049, China.
Abstract
Randomized neural networks (RaNNs) are attractive for partial differential equations (PDEs) because they replace expensive end-to-end training with a linear least-squares solve over randomized hidden features. Their practical performance, however, depends strongly on the sampling distribution of the hidden-layer parameters, which is usually chosen heuristically and problem by problem. This distribution sensitivity is a central bottleneck in randomized neural PDE solvers. In this work, we propose Adaptive-Distribution Randomized Neural Networks (AD-RaNN), a framework that promotes randomized feature generation from a fixed heuristic choice to a low-dimensional adaptive optimization problem. Instead of training all hidden weights and biases, AD-RaNN parameterizes the hidden-feature sampling distribution by a low-dimensional vector p and optimizes only p, thereby preserving the least-squares structure of RaNNs while reducing manual distribution tuning. The method uses a two-stage strategy: ridge-regularized reduced training for stable distribution-parameter optimization, followed by an unregularized least-squares refit for final solution recovery. We develop two adaptive mechanisms, PDE-Driven Adaptive Distribution (PDAD) and Data-Driven Adaptive Distribution (DDAD), and deploy them in space-time solvers, discrete-time solvers, and operator-learning models. We also incorporate an adaptive layer-growth enhancement for localized structures. For the reduced optimization problem, we establish well-posedness of the reduced objectives, consistency of ridge-regularized minimizers, an efficient gradient formula, and a practical lower-bound estimate for the ridge parameter. Numerical experiments on benchmark problems show that AD-RaNN provides an effective distribution-level adaptation mechanism, reduces reliance on hand-crafted hidden-feature distributions, and achieves strong empirical accuracy.
Repeatedly solving parametric PDEs is essential for uncertainty quantification, design optimization and inverse problems, but conventional neural operators require expensive non-convex training. We introduce PCA--RaNN, a randomized latent neural operator that combines PCA-based dimensionality reduction with fixed random features and a closed-form least-squares readout. It recasts latent operator learning as fixed-feature linear regression, reducing training time by one to three orders of magnitude across benchmarks while maintaining competitive accuracy. We introduce an energy-matched scaling rule and a lightweight two-parameter BFGS refinement to correct suboptimal feature scales. Ensemble averaging reduces predictive variance. On Burgers, Darcy, Navier--Stokes and backward heat equation benchmarks, PCA--RaNN provides a favorable speed--accuracy trade-off against operator-learning baselines. The ensemble supports split-conformal prediction intervals, and the linear readout enables rapid online adaptation via recursive least squares without retraining hidden features. This provides an efficient, uncertainty-aware surrogate for many-query scientific workflows.
Machine learning-based partial differential equations (PDEs) solvers have attracted significant attention in recent years. Most progress in this area has been driven by deep neural networks such as physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) and kernel method (such as physics-informed Gaussian Processes). We introduce a physics-informed random feature method for countering part of the spectral bias which PINN-based solvers are facing for a certain class of PDEs. Random feature method was originally proposed to approximate large-scale kernel machines and can be viewed as a specialized randomized neural network. Compared to other state-of-the-art PINN-based solvers which require a large number of collocation points, our proposed method reduces the computational complexity. In this paper, we develop a rigorous approximation error analysis and derive high-probability error bounds on the H1 norm. We provide extensive numerical tests for verifying our theoretical guarantees on error decay rates, as well as several comparison tests to showcase our claimed capability for combating spectral bias in these deep learning based methods.
Neural networks with randomly generated hidden weights (RaNNs) have been extensively studied, both as a standalone learning method and as an initialization for fully trainable deep learning methods. In this work, we study RaNN expressivity for learning solutions to non-linear partial differential equations (PDEs). Despite their widespread use in practical applications, a rigorous theoretical understanding of the approximation properties of RaNNs in this context remains limited. Here, we derive error bounds for RaNN approximations to time-dependent Sobolev functions and obtain a dimension-free approximation rate 21 for sufficiently regular functions. We apply our results to two important classes of non-linear PDEs: Porous Medium Equations and Compressible Navier-Stokes Equations, showing that RaNNs are capable of efficiently approximating solutions to these complex, non-linear PDEs. Our theoretical analysis is supported by numerical experiments, showing that the obtained convergence rates extend beyond the considered setting.