# PeSANet: Physics-encoded Spectral Attention Network for Simulating PDE-Governed Complex Systems

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.01736 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.01736/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 33 of its 42 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 3 May 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 33)

- [Fourier Neural Operator for Parametric Partial Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.08895/) (2020)
- [DeepONet: Learning nonlinear operators for identifying differential equations based on the universal approximation theorem of operators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.03193/) (2019)
- [Convolutional LSTM Network: A Machine Learning Approach for Precipitation Nowcasting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.04214/) (2015)
- [Learning to Simulate Complex Physics with Graph Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.09405/) (2020)
- [Learning Mesh-Based Simulation with Graph Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.03409/) (2020)
- [Characterizing possible failure modes in physics-informed neural networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.01050/) (2021)
- [ECA-Net: Efficient Channel Attention for Deep Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.03151/) (2019)
- [Learning the solution operator of parametric partial differential equations with physics-informed DeepOnets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.10974/) (2021)
- [Physics-Informed Neural Operator for Learning Partial Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.03794/) (2021)
- [Machine learning accelerated computational fluid dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.01010/) (2021)
- [Transolver: A Fast Transformer Solver for PDEs on General Geometries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.02366/) (2024)
- [U-FNO -- An enhanced Fourier neural operator-based deep-learning model for multiphase flow](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.03697/) (2021)
- [Factorized Fourier Neural Operators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.13802/) (2021)
- [U-NO: U-shaped Neural Operators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.11127/) (2022)
- [PDE-Net 2.0: Learning PDEs from Data with A Numeric-Symbolic Hybrid Deep Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.04426/) (2018)
- [Beyond Finite Layer Neural Networks: Bridging Deep Architectures and Numerical Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.10121/) (2017)
- [Towards Multi-spatiotemporal-scale Generalized PDE Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.15616/) (2022)
- [Scalable Transformer for PDE Surrogate Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.17560/) (2023)
- [PhyCRNet: Physics-informed Convolutional-Recurrent Network for Solving Spatiotemporal PDEs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.14103/) (2021)
- [Learned Coarse Models for Efficient Turbulence Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.15275/) (2021)
- [Multiscale Simulations of Complex Systems by Learning their Effective Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.13431/) (2020)
- [NOMAD: Nonlinear Manifold Decoders for Operator Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.03551/) (2022)
- [Encoding physics to learn reaction-diffusion processes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.04781/) (2021)
- [Eagle: Large-Scale Learning of Turbulent Fluid Dynamics with Mesh Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.10803/) (2023)
- [SVD Perspectives for Augmenting DeepONet Flexibility and Interpretability](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.12670/) (2022)
- [HyperDeepONet: learning operator with complex target function space using the limited resources via hypernetwork](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.15949/) (2023)
- [Discovering Nonlinear PDEs from Scarce Data with Physics-encoded Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.12354/) (2022)
- [A Neural PDE Solver with Temporal Stencil Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.08105/) (2023)
- [PhyMPGN: Physics-encoded Message Passing Graph Network for spatiotemporal PDE systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.01337/) (2024)
- [Deciphering and integrating invariants for neural operator learning with various physical mechanisms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.14361/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Spectral-inspired Operator Learning with Limited Data and Unknown Physics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.21573/) (2025)
- [From Points to Edges: Edge-Conditioned Spectral Operators for Physics-Sensitive PDE Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.06894/) (2026)
- [Stable spectral neural operator for learning stiff PDE systems from limited data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.11686/) (2025)
- [PerFlow: Physics-Embedded Rectified Flow for Efficient Reconstruction and Uncertainty Quantification of Spatiotemporal Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.03548/) (2026)
- [Large language models for partial differential equation workflows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.03600/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Accurately modeling and forecasting complex systems governed by partial differential equations (PDEs) is crucial in various scientific and engineering domains. However, traditional numerical methods struggle in real-world scenarios due to incomplete or unknown physical laws. Meanwhile, machine learning approaches often fail to generalize effectively when faced with scarce observational data and the challenge of capturing local and global features. To this end, we propose the Physics-encoded Spectral Attention Network (PeSANet), which integrates local and global information to forecast complex systems with limited data and incomplete physical priors. The model consists of two key components: a physics-encoded block that uses hard constraints to approximate local differential operators from limited data, and a spectral-enhanced block that captures long-range global dependencies in the frequency domain. Specifically, we introduce a novel spectral attention mechanism to model inter-spectrum relationships and learn long-range spatial features. Experimental results demonstrate that PeSANet outperforms existing methods across all metrics, particularly in long-term forecasting accuracy, providing a promising solution for simulating complex systems with limited data and incomplete physics.