# Multi-Objective Loss Balancing for Physics-Informed Deep Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.09813 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.09813/

## Key facts

- Cited by 87 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 37 of its 83 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 19 Oct 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 37)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning for Fast Adaptation of Deep Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.03400/) (2017)
- [Implicit Neural Representations with Periodic Activation Functions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.09661/) (2020)
- [Group Normalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.08494/) (2018)
- [Multi-Task Learning Using Uncertainty to Weigh Losses for Scene Geometry and Semantics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.07115/) (2017)
- [On First-Order Meta-Learning Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.02999/) (2018)
- [GradNorm: Gradient Normalization for Adaptive Loss Balancing in Deep Multitask Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.02257/) (2017)
- [Multi-Task Learning as Multi-Objective Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.04650/) (2018)
- [DGM: A deep learning algorithm for solving partial differential equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.07469/) (2017)
- [When and why PINNs fail to train: A neural tangent kernel perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.14527/) (2020)
- [DeepXDE: A deep learning library for solving differential equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.04502/) (2019)
- [Meta-Learning with Implicit Gradients](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.04630/) (2019)
- [Probabilistic Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.02817/) (2018)
- [hp-VPINNs: Variational Physics-Informed Neural Networks With Domain Decomposition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.05385/) (2020)
- [Deep Hidden Physics Models: Deep Learning of Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.06637/) (2018)
- [Self-Adaptive Physics-Informed Neural Networks using a Soft Attention Mechanism](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.04544/) (2020)
- [Physics Informed Deep Learning (Part II): Data-driven Discovery of Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.10566/) (2017)
- [Why and When Can Deep -- but Not Shallow -- Networks Avoid the Curse of Dimensionality: a Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.00740/) (2016)
- [Sobolev Training for Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.04859/) (2017)
- [Understanding and mitigating gradient pathologies in physics-informed neural networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.04536/) (2020)
- [Solving Allen-Cahn and Cahn-Hilliard Equations using the Adaptive Physics Informed Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.04542/) (2020)
- [PPINN: Parareal Physics-Informed Neural Network for time-dependent PDEs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.10145/) (2019)
- [Transfer learning enhanced physics informed neural network for phase-field modeling of fracture](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.02531/) (2019)
- [Parallel Physics-Informed Neural Networks via Domain Decomposition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.10013/) (2021)
- [Grid Search, Random Search, Genetic Algorithm: A Big Comparison for NAS](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.06059/) (2019)
- [A fast and accurate physics-informed neural network reduced order model with shallow masked autoencoder](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.11990/) (2020)
- [Transfer learning based multi-fidelity physics informed deep neural network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.10614/) (2020)
- [Meta-Learning and Universality: Deep Representations and Gradient Descent can Approximate any Learning Algorithm](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.11622/) (2017)
- [A proof that artificial neural networks overcome the curse of dimensionality in the numerical approximation of Black-Scholes partial differential equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.02362/) (2018)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 87)

- [PINNacle: A Comprehensive Benchmark of Physics-Informed Neural Networks for Solving PDEs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.08827/) (2023)
- [Failure-informed adaptive sampling for PINNs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.00279/) (2022)
- [ConFIG: Towards Conflict-free Training of Physics Informed Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.11104/) (2024)
- [Adaptive Training of Grid-Dependent Physics-Informed Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.17611/) (2024)
- [Enhanced Physics-Informed Neural Networks with Augmented Lagrangian Relaxation Method (AL-PINNs)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.01059/) (2022)
- [Adaptive Self-supervision Algorithms for Physics-informed Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.04084/) (2022)
- [Mixed formulation of physics-informed neural networks for thermo-mechanically coupled systems and heterogeneous domains](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04954/) (2023)
- [Failure-informed adaptive sampling for PINNs, Part II: combining with re-sampling and subset simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.01529/) (2023)
- [NSGA-PINN: A Multi-Objective Optimization Method for Physics-Informed Neural Network Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.02219/) (2023)
- [Physics-informed MeshGraphNets (PI-MGNs): Neural finite element solvers for non-stationary and nonlinear simulations on arbitrary meshes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.10681/) (2024)
- [Evolutionary Optimization of Physics-Informed Neural Networks: Evo-PINN Frontiers and Opportunities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.06572/) (2025)
- [QCPINN: Quantum-Classical Physics-Informed Neural Networks for Solving PDEs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.16678/) (2025)
- [HyPINO: Multi-Physics Neural Operators via HyperPINNs and the Method of Manufactured Solutions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.05117/) (2025)
- [PhySRNet: Physics informed super-resolution network for application in computational solid mechanics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.15457/) (2022)
- [A Dimension-Augmented Physics-Informed Neural Network (DaPINN) with High Level Accuracy and Efficiency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.13212/) (2022)
- [Physics-Informed Neural Networks for Prognostics and Health Management of Lithium-Ion Batteries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.00776/) (2023)
- [Learnable Activation Functions in Physics-Informed Neural Networks for Solving Partial Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.15111/) (2024)
- [Enabling Automatic Differentiation with Mollified Graph Neural Operators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.08277/) (2025)
- [Convolution-weighting method for the physics-informed neural network: A Primal-Dual Optimization Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.19805/) (2025)
- [Learning PDE Solvers with Physics and Data: A Unifying View of Physics-Informed Neural Networks and Neural Operators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.14517/) (2026)
- [Deep learning for full-field ultrasonic characterization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.02378/) (2023)
- [Discovering Physics-Informed Neural Networks Model for Solving Partial Differential Equations through Evolutionary Computation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.11208/) (2024)
- [PEST: Physics-Enhanced Swin Transformer for 3D Turbulence Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.10150/) (2026)
- [Deep Learning and Computational Physics (Lecture Notes)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.00942/) (2023)
- [LSA-PINN: Linear Boundary Connectivity Loss for Solving PDEs on Complex Geometry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.01518/) (2023)
- [Physics-informed neural networks modeling for systems with moving immersed boundaries: application to an unsteady flow past a plunging foil](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.13395/) (2023)
- [Domain-decoupled Physics-informed Neural Networks with Closed-form Gradients for Fast Model Learning of Dynamical Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.14951/) (2024)
- [Beyond Derivative Pathology of PINNs: Variable Splitting Strategy with Convergence Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.20383/) (2024)
- [PINNverse: Accurate parameter estimation in differential equations from noisy data with constrained physics-informed neural networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.05248/) (2025)
- [Learning CO2 plume migration in faulted reservoirs with Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.09648/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINN) are algorithms from deep learning leveraging physical laws by including partial differential equations together with a respective set of boundary and initial conditions as penalty terms into their loss function. In this work, we observe the significant role of correctly weighting the combination of multiple competitive loss functions for training PINNs effectively. To this end, we implement and evaluate different methods aiming at balancing the contributions of multiple terms of the PINNs loss function and their gradients. After reviewing of three existing loss scaling approaches (Learning Rate Annealing, GradNorm and SoftAdapt), we propose a novel self-adaptive loss balancing scheme for PINNs named ReLoBRaLo (Relative Loss Balancing with Random Lookback). We extensively evaluate the performance of the aforementioned balancing schemes by solving both forward as well as inverse problems on three benchmark PDEs for PINNs: Burgers' equation, Kirchhoff's plate bending equation and Helmholtz's equation. The results show that ReLoBRaLo is able to consistently outperform the baseline of existing scaling methods in terms of accuracy, while also inducing significantly less computational overhead.