Expressive Power of Deep Networks on Manifolds: Simultaneous Approximation

A key challenge in scientific machine learning is solving partial differential equations (PDEs) on complex domains, where the curved geometry complicates the approximation of functions and their derivatives required by differential operators. This paper establishes the first simultaneous approximation theory for deep neural networks on manifolds. We prove that a constant-depth $\mathrm{ReLU}^{k-1}$ network with bounded weights--a property that plays a crucial role in controlling generalization error--can approximate any function in the Sobolev space $\mathcal{W}_p^{k}(\mathcal{M}^d)$ to an error of $\varepsilon$ in the $\mathcal{W}_p^{s}(\mathcal{M}^d)$ norm, for $k\geq 3$ and $s<k$, using $\mathcal{O}(\varepsilon^{-d/(k-s)})$ nonzero parameters, a rate that overcomes the curse of dimensionality by depending only on the intrinsic dimension $d$. These results readily extend to functions in H\"older-Zygmund spaces. We complement this result with a matching lower bound, proving our construction is nearly optimal by showing the required number of parameters matches up to a logarithmic factor. Our proof of the lower bound introduces novel estimates for the Vapnik-Chervonenkis dimension and pseudo-dimension of the network's high-order derivative classes. These complexity bounds provide a theoretical cornerstone for learning PDEs on manifolds involving derivatives. Our analysis reveals that the network architecture leverages a sparse structure to efficiently exploit the manifold's low-dimensional geometry.

Weak Physics Informed Neural Networks for Geometry Compatible Hyperbolic Conservation Laws on Manifolds

Physics-informed neural networks (PINNs), owing to their mesh-free nature, offer a powerful approach for solving high-dimensional partial differential equations (PDEs) in complex geometries, including irregular domains. This capability effectively circumvents the challenges of mesh generation that traditional numerical methods face in high-dimensional or geometrically intricate settings. While recent studies have extended PINNs to manifolds, the theoretical foundations remain scarce. Existing theoretical analyses of PINNs in Euclidean space often rely on smoothness assumptions for the solutions. However, recent empirical evidence indicates that PINNs may struggle to approximate solutions with low regularity, such as those arising from nonlinear hyperbolic equations. In this paper, we develop a framework for PINNs tailored to the efficient approximation of weak solutions, particularly nonlinear hyperbolic equations defined on manifolds. We introduce a novel weak PINN (wPINN) formulation on manifolds that leverages the well-posedness theory to approximate entropy solutions of geometry-compatible hyperbolic conservation laws on manifolds. Employing tools from approximation theory, we establish a convergence analysis of the algorithm, including an analysis of approximation errors for time-dependent entropy solutions. This analysis provides insight into the accumulation of approximation errors over long time horizons. Notably, the network complexity depends only on the intrinsic dimension, independent of the ambient space dimension. Our results match the minimax rate in the d-dimensional Euclidean space, demonstrating that PINNs can alleviate the curse of dimensionality in the context of low-dimensional manifolds. Finally, we validate the performance of the proposed wPINN framework through numerical experiments, confirming its ability to efficiently approximate entropy solutions on manifolds.