We present an arbitrary order discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for solving the biharmonic interface problem on the unfitted mesh. The approximation space is constructed by a patch reconstruction process with at most one degree freedom per element. The discrete problem is based on the symmetric interior penalty method and the jump conditions are weakly imposed by the Nitsche's technique. The C^2-smooth interface is allowed to intersect elements in a very general fashion and the stability near the interface is naturally ensured by the patch reconstruction. We prove the optimal a priori error estimate under the energy norm and the L^2 norm. Numerical results are provided to verify the theoretical analysis.
Integer linear programming (ILP) models a wide range of practical combinatorial optimization problems and has significant impacts in industry and management sectors. This work proposes new characterizations of ILP with the concept of boundary solutions. Motivated by the new characterizations, we develop an efficient local search solver, which is the first local search solver for general ILP validated on a large heterogeneous problem dataset. We propose a new local search framework that switches between three modes, namely Search, Improve, and Restore modes. We design tailored operators adapted to different modes, thus improving the quality of the current solution according to different situations. For the Search and Restore modes, we propose an operator named tight move, which adaptively modifies variables' values, trying to make some constraint tight. For the Improve mode, an efficient operator lift move is proposed to improve the quality of the objective function while maintaining feasibility. Putting these together, we develop a local search solver for integer linear programming called Local-ILP. Experiments conducted on the MIPLIB dataset show the effectiveness of our solver in solving large-scale hard integer linear programming problems within a reasonably short time. Local-ILP is competitive and complementary to the state-of-the-art commercial solver Gurobi and significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art non-commercial solver SCIP. Moreover, our solver establishes new records for 6 MIPLIB open instances. The theoretical analysis of our algorithm is also presented, which shows our algorithm could avoid visiting unnecessary regions and also maintain good connectivity of targeted solutions.
Warm-Start reinforcement learning (RL), aided by a prior policy obtained from offline training, is emerging as a promising RL approach for practical applications. Recent empirical studies have demonstrated that the performance of Warm-Start RL can be improved \textit{quickly} in some cases but become \textit{stagnant} in other cases, especially when the function approximation is used. To this end, the primary objective of this work is to build a fundamental understanding on ``\textit{whether and when online learning can be significantly accelerated by a warm-start policy from offline RL?}''. Specifically, we consider the widely used Actor-Critic (A-C) method with a prior policy. We first quantify the approximation errors in the Actor update and the Critic update, respectively. Next, we cast the Warm-Start A-C algorithm as Newton's method with perturbation, and study the impact of the approximation errors on the finite-time learning performance with inaccurate Actor/Critic updates. Under some general technical conditions, we derive the upper bounds, which shed light on achieving the desired finite-learning performance in the Warm-Start A-C algorithm. In particular, our findings reveal that it is essential to reduce the algorithm bias in online learning. We also obtain lower bounds on the sub-optimality gap of the Warm-Start A-C algorithm to quantify the impact of the bias and error propagation.
We present a finite element discretisation to model the interaction between a poroelastic structure and an elastic medium. The consolidation problem considers fully coupled deformations across an interface, ensuring continuity of displacement and total traction, as well as no-flux for the fluid phase. Our formulation of the poroelasticity equations incorporates displacement, fluid pressure, and total pressure, while the elasticity equations adopt a displacement-pressure formulation. Notably, the transmission conditions at the interface are enforced without the need for Lagrange multipliers. We demonstrate the stability and convergence of the divergence-conforming finite element method across various polynomial degrees. The a priori error bounds remain robust, even when considering large variations in intricate model parameters such as Lam\'e constants, permeability, and storativity coefficient. To enhance computational efficiency and reliability, we develop residual-based a posteriori error estimators that are independent of the aforementioned coefficients. Additionally, we devise parameter-robust and optimal block diagonal preconditioners. Through numerical examples, including adaptive scenarios, we illustrate the scheme's properties such as convergence and parameter robustness.
We present a space-time ultra-weak discontinuous Galerkin discretization of the linear Schr\"odinger equation with variable potential. The proposed method is well-posed and quasi-optimal in mesh-dependent norms for very general discrete spaces. Optimal $h$-convergence error estimates are derived for the method when test and trial spaces are chosen either as piecewise polynomials, or as a novel quasi-Trefftz polynomial space. The latter allows for a substantial reduction of the number of degrees of freedom and admits piecewise-smooth potentials. Several numerical experiments validate the accuracy and advantages of the proposed method.
A coupled hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) and boundary integral (BI) method is proposed to efficiently analyze electromagnetic scattering from inhomogeneous/composite objects. The coupling between the HDG and the BI equations is realized using the numerical flux operating on the equivalent current and the global unknown of the HDG. This approach yields sparse coupling matrices upon discretization. Inclusion of the BI equation ensures that the only error in enforcing the radiation conditions is the discretization. However, the discretization of this equation yields a dense matrix, which prohibits the use of a direct matrix solver on the overall coupled system as often done with traditional HDG schemes. To overcome this bottleneck, a "hybrid" method is developed. This method uses an iterative scheme to solve the overall coupled system but within the matrix-vector multiplication subroutine of the iterations, the inverse of the HDG matrix is efficiently accounted for using a sparse direct matrix solver. The same subroutine also uses the multilevel fast multipole algorithm to accelerate the multiplication of the guess vector with the dense BI matrix. The numerical results demonstrate the accuracy, the efficiency, and the applicability of the proposed HDG-BI solver.
In this study, we examine numerical approximations for 2nd-order linear-nonlinear differential equations with diverse boundary conditions, followed by the residual corrections of the first approximations. We first obtain numerical results using the Galerkin weighted residual approach with Bernstein polynomials. The generation of residuals is brought on by the fact that our first approximation is computed using numerical methods. To minimize these residuals, we use the compact finite difference scheme of 4th-order convergence to solve the error differential equations in accordance with the error boundary conditions. We also introduce the formulation of the compact finite difference method of fourth-order convergence for the nonlinear BVPs. The improved approximations are produced by adding the error values derived from the approximations of the error differential equation to the weighted residual values. Numerical results are compared to the exact solutions and to the solutions available in the published literature to validate the proposed scheme, and high accuracy is achieved in all cases
Two numerical schemes are proposed and investigated for the Yang--Mills equations, which can be seen as a nonlinear generalisation of the Maxwell equations set on Lie algebra-valued functions, with similarities to certain formulations of General Relativity. Both schemes are built on the Discrete de Rham (DDR) method, and inherit from its main features: an arbitrary order of accuracy, and applicability to generic polyhedral meshes. They make use of the complex property of the DDR, together with a Lagrange-multiplier approach, to preserve, at the discrete level, a nonlinear constraint associated with the Yang--Mills equations. We also show that the schemes satisfy a discrete energy dissipation (the dissipation coming solely from the implicit time stepping). Issues around the practical implementations of the schemes are discussed; in particular, the assembly of the local contributions in a way that minimises the price we pay in dealing with nonlinear terms, in conjunction with the tensorisation coming from the Lie algebra. Numerical tests are provided using a manufactured solution, and show that both schemes display a convergence in $L^2$-norm of the potential and electrical fields in $\mathcal O(h^{k+1})$ (provided that the time step is of that order), where $k$ is the polynomial degree chosen for the DDR complex. We also numerically demonstrate the preservation of the constraint.
Many successful methods to learn dynamical systems from data have recently been introduced. However, assuring that the inferred dynamics preserve known constraints, such as conservation laws or restrictions on the allowed system states, remains challenging. We propose stabilized neural differential equations (SNDEs), a method to enforce arbitrary manifold constraints for neural differential equations. Our approach is based on a stabilization term that, when added to the original dynamics, renders the constraint manifold provably asymptotically stable. Due to its simplicity, our method is compatible with all common neural ordinary differential equation (NODE) models and broadly applicable. In extensive empirical evaluations, we demonstrate that SNDEs outperform existing methods while extending the scope of which types of constraints can be incorporated into NODE training.
Despite the growing interest in parallel-in-time methods as an approach to accelerate numerical simulations in atmospheric modelling, improving their stability and convergence remains a substantial challenge for their application to operational models. In this work, we study the temporal parallelization of the shallow water equations on the rotating sphere combined with time-stepping schemes commonly used in atmospheric modelling due to their stability properties, namely an Eulerian implicit-explicit (IMEX) method and a semi-Lagrangian semi-implicit method (SL-SI-SETTLS). The main goal is to investigate the performance of parallel-in-time methods, namely Parareal and Multigrid Reduction in Time (MGRIT), when these well-established schemes are used on the coarse discretization levels and provide insights on how they can be improved for better performance. We begin by performing an analytical stability study of Parareal and MGRIT applied to a linearized ordinary differential equation depending on the choice of coarse scheme. Next, we perform numerical simulations of two standard tests to evaluate the stability, convergence and speedup provided by the parallel-in-time methods compared to a fine reference solution computed serially. We also conduct a detailed investigation on the influence of artificial viscosity and hyperviscosity approaches, applied on the coarse discretization levels, on the performance of the temporal parallelization. Both the analytical stability study and the numerical simulations indicate a poorer stability behaviour when SL-SI-SETTLS is used on the coarse levels, compared to the IMEX scheme. With the IMEX scheme, a better trade-off between convergence, stability and speedup compared to serial simulations can be obtained under proper parameters and artificial viscosity choices, opening the perspective of the potential competitiveness for realistic models.
We present a generalized FDTD scheme to simulate moving electromagnetic structures with arbitrary space-time configurations. This scheme is a local adaptation and 2+1-dimensional extension of the uniform and 1+1-dimensional scheme recently reported in [1]. The local adaptation, which is allowed by the inherently matched nature of the generalized Yee cell to the conventional Yee cell, extends the range of applicability of the scheme in [1] to moving structures that involve multiple and arbitrary velocity profiles while being fully compatible with conventional absorbing boundary conditions and standard treatments of medium dispersion. We show that a direct application of the conventional FDTD scheme predicts qualitatively correct spectral transitions but quantitatively erroneous scattering amplitudes, we infer from this observation generalized, hybrid - physical and auxiliary (non-physical) - fields that automatically satisfy moving boundary conditions in the laboratory frame, and accordingly establish local update equations based on the related Maxwell's equations and constitutive relations. We finally validate and illustrate the proposed method by three canonical examples - a space-time interface, a space-time wedge and a space-time accelerated interface - whose combination represent arbitrary space-time configurations. The proposed scheme fills an important gap in the open literature on computational electromagnetics and offers an unprecedented, direct solution for moving structures in commercial software platforms.