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Operator learning at machine precision

delete2026-07-27
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PRE
AI
A
Aras Bacho *
A
Aleksei G. Sorokin
X
Xianjin Yang
T
Théo Bourdais
E
Edoardo Calvello
M
Matthieu Darcy
A
Alexander W. Hsu
B
Bamdad Hosseini
H
Houman Owhadi
DOI:10.1016/j.jcp.2026.115240delete
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Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
Neural operator learning methods have garnered significant attention in scientific computing for their ability to approximate infinite-dimensional operators. However, increasing their complexity often fails to substantially improve their accuracy, leaving them on par with much simpler approaches such as kernel methods and more traditional reduced-order models. In this article, we set out to address this shortcoming and introduce CHONKNORIS (Cholesky Newton–Kantorovich Neural Operator Residual Iterative System), an operator learning paradigm that can achieve machine precision. CHONKNORIS draws on numerical analysis: many nonlinear forward and inverse PDE problems are solvable by Newton-type methods. Rather than regressing the solution operator itself, our method regresses the Cholesky factors of the elliptic operator associated with Tikhonov-regularized Newton–Kantorovich updates. The resulting unrolled iteration yields a neural architecture whose machine-precision behavior follows from achieving a contractive map, requiring far lower accuracy than end-to-end approximation of the solution operator. We benchmark CHONKNORIS on a range of nonlinear forward and inverse problems, including a nonlinear elliptic equation, Burgers’ equation, a nonlinear Darcy flow problem, the Calderón problem, an inverse wave scattering problem, and a problem from seismic imaging. We also present theoretical guarantees for the convergence of CHONKNORIS in terms of the accuracy of the emulated Cholesky factors. Additionally, we introduce a foundation model variant, FONKNORIS (Foundation Newton–Kantorovich Neural Operator Residual Iterative System), which aggregates multiple pre-trained CHONKNORIS experts for diverse PDEs to emulate the solution map of a novel nonlinear PDE. Our FONKNORIS model is able to accurately solve unseen nonlinear PDEs such as the Klein–Gordon and Sine–Gordon equations.
Keywords:
Operator learning
Scientific machine learning
Digital Twins Modeling
Newton-kantorovich method
Forward and inverse problems

Journal

Journal of Computational Physics cover
Journal of Computational Physics
IF:
3.8
Papers:
1.5W
Citations:
7.4W

Organization

I
illinois institute of technology
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339
Papers: 189
Citations: 0
C
california institute of technology
Scholars:
2.6K
Papers: 1.1K
Citations: 0
U
university of washington
Scholars:
8.9K
Papers: 4.1K
Citations: 2
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