# Learning Neural Operator Surrogates for the Black Hole Accretion Code

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.25985 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.25985/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 30 of its 57 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 28 Apr 2026.

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

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11929/) (2020)
- [Semi-Supervised Classification with Graph Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.02907/) (2016)
- [Layer Normalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.06450/) (2016)
- [RoFormer: Enhanced Transformer with Rotary Position Embedding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.09864/) (2021)
- [Gaussian Error Linear Units (GELUs)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.08415/) (2016)
- [Fourier Neural Operator for Parametric Partial Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.08895/) (2020)
- [Root Mean Square Layer Normalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.07467/) (2019)
- [Neural Operator: Graph Kernel Network for Partial Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.03485/) (2020)
- [Physics-Informed Neural Operator for Learning Partial Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.03794/) (2021)
- [Fourier Neural Operator with Learned Deformations for PDEs on General Geometries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.05209/) (2022)
- [Neural Operator: Learning Maps Between Function Spaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.08481/) (2021)
- [Choose a Transformer: Fourier or Galerkin](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.14995/) (2021)
- [Transolver: A Fast Transformer Solver for PDEs on General Geometries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.02366/) (2024)
- [Geometry-Informed Neural Operator for Large-Scale 3D PDEs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.00583/) (2023)
- [Transformer for Partial Differential Equations' Operator Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.13671/) (2022)
- [Spherical Fourier Neural Operators: Learning Stable Dynamics on the Sphere](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.03838/) (2023)
- [Transolver++: An Accurate Neural Solver for PDEs on Million-Scale Geometries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.02414/) (2025)
- [Geometry Aware Operator Transformer as an Efficient and Accurate Neural Surrogate for PDEs on Arbitrary Domains](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.18781/) (2025)
- [Pretraining Codomain Attention Neural Operators for Solving Multiphysics PDEs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.12553/) (2024)
- [Continuum Attention for Neural Operators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.06486/) (2024)
- [wPINNs: Weak Physics informed neural networks for approximating entropy solutions of hyperbolic conservation laws](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.08483/) (2022)
- [Transolver-3: Scaling Up Transformer Solvers to Industrial-Scale Geometries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.04940/) (2026)
- [Fourier Neural Operators Explained: A Practical Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.01421/) (2025)
- [Principled Approaches for Extending Neural Architectures to Function Spaces for Operator Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.10973/) (2025)
- [Challenges and Advancements in Modeling Shock Fronts with Physics-Informed Neural Networks: A Review and Benchmarking Study](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.17379/) (2025)
- [Mesh-Informed Neural Operator : A Transformer Generative Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.16656/) (2025)
- [AMR-Transformer: Enabling Efficient Long-range Interaction for Complex Neural Fluid Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.10257/) (2025)
- [Magnetohydrodynamics with Physics Informed Neural Operators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.08332/) (2023)
- [Resolving Turbulent Magnetohydrodynamics: A Hybrid Operator-Diffusion Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.02106/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

General-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GR-MHD) simulations are essential for studying black hole accretion, relativistic jets, and magnetic reconnection, yet their computational cost severely limits systematic parameter exploration. We investigate neural operator surrogates for two astrophysically relevant simulation scenarios produced by the Black Hole Accretion Code (textttBHAC). First, a Physics Informed Fourier Neural Operator (PINO) is trained on the special-relativistic resistive MHD (SRRMHD) evolution of the Orszag-Tang vortex over a range of resistivities spanning the Sweet-Parker and fast reconnection regimes. By embedding the governing equations as an additional loss term evaluated at finer temporal resolution than the available data supervision, the model learns dynamics at time steps where no simulation data is provided, enabling recovery of plasmoid formation that a data-only baseline trained on the same sparse snapshots fails to reproduce. To our knowledge, the present work is the first application of a physics informed neural operator to special relativistic resistive MHD, and the first to investigate the capability of such models to resolve plasmoid formation in SRRMHD. In a second line of investigation, an OFormer-style Transformer Neural Operator is trained on the evolution of spine-sheath relativistic jets created with textttBHAC, in special-relativistic MHD (SRMHD). The model is directly applied on the adaptive mesh, highlighting the need for linear attention due to long sequences. The neural surrogate model is capable of capturing most of the major details, especially in early predictions. To our knowledge, this constitutes the first application of a neural operator directly on a high resolution adaptive mesh refinement grid in the context of MHD simulations.
