# Striding Across Reynolds Numbers: Representation Geometry in Neural PDE Generalisation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.30112 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.30112/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 17 of its 28 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 28 May 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 17 of 17)

- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [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)
- [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)
- [Generalization through Memorization: Nearest Neighbor Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.00172/) (2019)
- [FourCastNet: A Global Data-driven High-resolution Weather Model using Adaptive Fourier Neural Operators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.11214/) (2022)
- [Fourier Neural Operator with Learned Deformations for PDEs on General Geometries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.05209/) (2022)
- [Message Passing Neural PDE Solvers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.03376/) (2022)
- [Machine Learning for Fluid Mechanics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.11075/) (2019)
- [Choose a Transformer: Fourier or Galerkin](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.14995/) (2021)
- [GNOT: A General Neural Operator Transformer for Operator Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.14376/) (2023)
- [Factorized Fourier Neural Operators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.13802/) (2021)
- [Multiwavelet-based Operator Learning for Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.13459/) (2021)
- [U-NO: U-shaped Neural Operators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.11127/) (2022)
- [PDE-Refiner: Achieving Accurate Long Rollouts with Neural PDE Solvers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.05732/) (2023)
- [Towards Foundation Models for Scientific Machine Learning: Characterizing Scaling and Transfer Behavior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.00258/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Cross-Reynolds generalisation in neural PDE solvers remains poorly characterised. On the canonical forced 2D Navier-Stokes benchmark, a trained Fourier Neural Operator reaches 46.68% relative L2 error under a 10x Reynolds-number shift, yet zero-forward-model retrieval baselines already improve to 41-42%. This suggests representation geometry as a major organising variable among the tested methods. We test this hypothesis through ConvAE-Relay, which matches states in a source-trained convolutional autoencoder latent space and borrows dynamics from a source-regime database, achieving 38.34+/-0.07% using only a source-regime database and no target-regime fitting, labels, or database entries. A 2x2 ablation isolates matching quality as dominant over the update rule. Oracle experiments confirm that source-regime dynamics directions remain transferable (cosine similarity ~0.84) when matching stays on-manifold; autoregressive drift is the primary bottleneck (~12 percentage points). From the learned-prediction side, a U-Net with multi-scale skip connections achieves 34.72+/-0.60%, consistent with the retrieval-side finding that local, multi-scale representations organise cross-Reynolds transfer among tested methods. All claims are scoped to this benchmark.