Data-Driven Variational Basis Learning Beyond Neural Networks: A Non-Neural Framework for Adaptive Basis Discovery

Spectral neural operators achieve strong performance for PDE learning, but rely on fixed global bases that limit their ability to represent spatially heterogeneous and multiscale dynamics. We propose Adaptive Basis Learning (ABLE), a framework that learns data-dependent spectral representations instead of relying on predefined bases. ABLE constructs a spatially adaptive Parseval frame via a learned ancillary density, enabling the operator to act in a lifted spectral space while preserving invertibility and maintaining $O(N\log N)$ complexity through FFT-based implementation. This shifts the source of expressivity from spectral coefficients to the representation itself, allowing the model to capture localized structures and non-translation-invariant interactions more efficiently. ABLE integrates seamlessly into existing neural operator architectures as a drop-in replacement for spectral layers. Across a range of benchmarks ABLE improves accuracy over strong baselines, with the largest gains in regimes characterized by sharp gradients and multiscale behavior. Moreover, augmenting existing models (e.g., U-FNO, HPM) with ABLE further enhances their performance, demonstrating its role as a general and complementary spectral refinement. Our results highlight that the data-driven choice of representation, rather than operator complexity alone, is a key bottleneck in neural operator design. By learning the basis itself, ABLE provides a principled and efficient framework for improving spectral methods in PDE learning.

Infinite-dimensional orthonormal basis expansions play a central role in representing and computing with function spaces due to their favorable linear algebraic properties. However, common bases such as Fourier or wavelets are fixed and do not adapt to the structure of a given problem or dataset. In this paper, we aim to represent these bases with neural networks and optimize them. Our key idea is that any target infinite-dimensional orthonormal basis can be viewed either as a point on the Lie manifold of the orthogonal group, or equivalently, as the endpoint of a continuous path on that manifold that connects a reference basis, e.g. Fourier, to that target. Paths on the Lie manifold satisfy ordinary differential equations (ODEs) governed by skew-adjoint integral operators. Using neural networks to define finite-rank generators of such ODEs allows us to parameterize and optimize orthonormal bases in function space. While relying on finite-rank generators to model infinite operators might seem restrictive, we prove a universality result: even with a rank-2 generator, the integrated solutions of the ODE are dense in the orthogonal group under the appropriate operator topology. In other words, for any target orthonormal basis, there exists a path originating from a reference basis and driven by finite-rank generators that gets arbitrarily close to that target basis. We demonstrate the flexibility of our framework by transforming the Fourier basis into the principal components of a functional dataset, eigenfunctions of linear operators, or dynamic modes of energy-preserving physical simulations.

Koopman theory promises linear structure in nonlinear dynamics, but numerical Koopman spectra are easy to compute and hard to trust. A finite EDMD matrix always has eigenvalues; the problem is that many of them may have nothing to do with the infinite-dimensional operator. In this paper we make spectral reliability the objective of dictionary learning. We train neural-network dictionaries not merely to predict the next snapshot, but to minimize Residual Dynamic Mode Decomposition residuals: operator-level a posteriori errors that test whether computed eigenvalues and modes are genuine Koopman spectral objects. To keep the learned observables from collapsing into an unstable coordinate system, the loss also penalizes the condition number of the lifted data matrix. Thus the method couples two requirements that should not be separated: small Koopman residuals and a well-conditioned representation. The result is a learned dictionary that is expressive, numerically stable, and spectrally disciplined. Across conservative and dissipative benchmark systems, the method sharply reduces spectral pollution, improves residual pseudospectral inclusion, and lowers forecast error relative to standard fixed dictionaries. On sea-surface temperature data, it gives cleaner Koopman diagnostics and substantially better one-step forecasts from noisy observations with no governing equations. The message is simple: neural Koopman learning should be judged not by prediction alone, but by whether its spectral claims can be certified. Residuals provide the certificate; conditioning makes it computable.