Anti-derivatives approximator for enhancing physics-informed neural networks

Abstract

This study presents a novel strategy for constructing an approximator for arbitrary univariate functions. The proposed approximation utilizes the anti-derivatives of a Fourier series expansion for the presumed piecewise function, resulting in a remarkable feature that enables the simultaneous approximation of an arbitrary function and its anti-derivatives. These anti-derivatives can be employed to discover solution curves for systems of ordinary differential equations based on an optimization scheme, even in the presence of chaotic dynamics. Additionally, the anti-derivatives approximator is extended as an adaptive activation function for physics-informed neural networks, leveraging the high-order differentiability of the anti-derivatives. Systematic experiments have demonstrated the outstanding merits of the proposed anti-derivatives-based approximator, including its ability to construct regression models for volatile data and their anti-derivatives, solve differential equations, and enhance the capabilities of physics-informed neural networks.