# From Points to Edges: Edge-Conditioned Spectral Operators for Physics-Sensitive PDE Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.06894 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.06894/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 29 of its 37 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 7 Aug 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 29 of 29)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [Inductive Representation Learning on Large Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02216/) (2017)
- [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)
- [Reformer: The Efficient Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.04451/) (2020)
- [FNet: Mixing Tokens with Fourier Transforms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.03824/) (2021)
- [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)
- [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)
- [U-FNO -- An enhanced Fourier neural operator-based deep-learning model for multiphase flow](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.03697/) (2021)
- [Transformer for Partial Differential Equations' Operator Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.13671/) (2022)
- [Factorized Fourier Neural Operators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.13802/) (2021)
- [Adaptive Fourier Neural Operators: Efficient Token Mixers for Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.13587/) (2021)
- [Multiwavelet-based Operator Learning for Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.13459/) (2021)
- [Spherical Fourier Neural Operators: Learning Stable Dynamics on the Sphere](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.03838/) (2023)
- [DPOT: Auto-Regressive Denoising Operator Transformer for Large-Scale PDE Pre-Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.03542/) (2024)
- [Scalable Transformer for PDE Surrogate Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.17560/) (2023)
- [Solving High-Dimensional PDEs with Latent Spectral Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.12664/) (2023)
- [Multi-Grid Tensorized Fourier Neural Operator for High-Resolution PDEs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.00120/) (2023)
- [Improved Operator Learning by Orthogonal Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.12487/) (2023)
- [CViT: Continuous Vision Transformer for Operator Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.13998/) (2024)
- [RIGNO: A Graph-based framework for robust and accurate operator learning for PDEs on arbitrary domains](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.19205/) (2025)
- [Inducing Point Operator Transformer: A Flexible and Scalable Architecture for Solving PDEs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.10975/) (2023)
- [Positional Knowledge is All You Need: Position-induced Transformer (PiT) for Operator Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.09285/) (2024)
- [Holistic Physics Solver: Learning PDEs in a Unified Spectral-Physical Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.11382/) (2024)
- [SAOT: An Enhanced Locality-Aware Spectral Transformer for Solving PDEs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.18777/) (2025)
- [PeSANet: Physics-encoded Spectral Attention Network for Simulating PDE-Governed Complex Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.01736/) (2025)
- [Simple yet Effective: Low-Rank Spatial Attention for Neural Operators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.03582/) (2026)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [PDE-JEPA: Predictive Representation Learning of Latent Dynamics Modeling for Parametric PDEs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.34715/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Neural operators have become a central tool for solving partial differential equations (PDEs), with spectral operators offering efficient global mixing across spatial locations. However, many PDEs contain physics-sensitive local structures that are critical to the underlying physical behavior. For example, in Darcy flow, local material interfaces are often reflected by sharp changes in the permeability field and can strongly influence the solution. Existing spectral operators primarily adapt modal mixing based on center-point representations, making them insufficiently responsive to such localized structural variations. We propose the Edge-Conditioned Spectral Operator (ESO), a novel spectral operator framework that modulates global spectral mixing using local edge-wise variations. By incorporating the Pairwise-Variation Modal Mixer (PVMM) to inject local edge information into spectral mode selection, ESO preserves the global approximation capability of spectral neural operators while enabling the learned kernel to adapt to physics-sensitive local structures. Furthermore, we introduce a task-adaptive Physics-Aware Reweighting (PAR) that emphasizes physically important regions, identified by taskspecific physical quantities. Across nine PDE benchmarks, ESO consistently achieves state-of-the-art performance. Visual and region-wise analyses further demonstrate that ESO reduces solution errors near coefficient jumps, high-gradient flow structures, and other physically sensitive regions. The code is available at https://github.com/Tanpig-X/ESO.