Principled interpolation of Green's functions learned from data

Abstract: We present a data-driven approach to mathematically model physical systems whose governing partial differential equations are unknown, by learning their associated Green's function. The subject systems are observed by collecting input-output pairs of system responses under excitations drawn from a Gaussian process. Two methods are proposed to learn the Green's function. In the first method, we use the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) modes of the system as a surrogate for the eigenvectors of the Green's function, and subsequently fit the eigenvalues, using data. In the second, we employ a generalization of the randomized singular value decomposition (SVD) to operators, in order to construct a low-rank approximation to the Green's function. Then, we propose a manifold interpolation scheme, for use in an offline-online setting, where offline excitation-response data, taken at specific model parameter instances, are compressed into empirical eigenmodes. These eigenmodes are subsequently used within a manifold interpolation scheme, to uncover other suitable eigenmodes at unseen model parameters. The approximation and interpolation numerical techniques are demonstrated on several examples in one and two dimensions.