CLPNets: Coupled Lie-Poisson Neural Networks for Multi-Part Hamiltonian Systems with Symmetries

To accurately compute data-based prediction of Hamiltonian systems, especially the long-term evolution of such systems, it is essential to utilize methods that preserve the structure of the equations over time. We consider a case that is particularly challenging for data-based methods: systems with interacting parts that do not reduce to pure momentum evolution. Such systems are essential in scientific computations. For example, any discretization of a continuum elastic rod can be viewed as interacting elements that can move and rotate in space, with each discrete element moving on the group of rotations and translations SE(3). We develop a novel method of data-based computation and complete phase space learning of such systems. We follow the original framework of SympNets (Jin et al, 2020) building the neural network from canonical phase space mappings, and transformations that preserve the Lie-Poisson structure (LPNets) as in (Eldred et al, 2024). We derive a novel system of mappings that are built into neural networks for coupled systems. We call such networks Coupled Lie-Poisson Neural Networks, or CLPNets. We consider increasingly complex examples for the applications of CLPNets: rotation of two rigid bodies about a common axis, the free rotation of two rigid bodies, and finally the evolution of two connected and interacting SE(3) components. Our method preserves all Casimir invariants of each system to machine precision, irrespective of the quality of the training data, and preserves energy to high accuracy. Our method also shows good resistance to the curse of dimensionality, requiring only a few thousand data points for all cases studied, with the effective dimension varying from three to eighteen. Additionally, the method is highly economical in memory requirements, requiring only about 200 parameters for the most complex case considered.