Adaptive-Distribution Randomized Neural Networks for PDEs: A Low-Dimensional Distribution-Learning Framework

TL;DR

This paper introduces AD-RaNN, an adaptive framework for randomized neural networks that optimizes hidden feature distributions to improve PDE solving accuracy without extensive manual tuning.

Contribution

AD-RaNN transforms distribution selection into a low-dimensional optimization problem, enhancing randomized neural PDE solvers with adaptive, data-driven distribution mechanisms.

Findings

AD-RaNN achieves improved empirical accuracy on benchmark PDE problems.

The framework reduces reliance on heuristic distribution choices.

Numerical experiments demonstrate effective distribution adaptation and solution stability.

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.