Mask-PINNs: Regulating Feature Distributions in Physics-Informed Neural Networks

Abstract: Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) have emerged as a powerful framework for solving partial differential equations (PDEs) by embedding physical laws directly into the loss function. However, effective training of PINNs remains challenging due to internal covariate shift, which destabilizes feature distributions and impairs model expressiveness. While normalization techniques like Batch Normalization and Layer Normalization are standard remedies in deep learning, they disrupt the pointwise input-output mappings critical to preserving the physical consistency in PINNs. In this work, we introduce Mask-PINNs, a novel architecture that regulates internal feature distributions through a smooth, learnable mask function applied pointwise across hidden layers. Unlike conventional normalization methods, the proposed mask function preserves the deterministic nature of input-output relationships while suppressing activation drift and saturation. Theoretically, we demonstrate that Mask-PINNs control feature spread near initialization by attenuating gradient variance growth through a tailored modulation mechanism. Empirically, we validate the method on multiple PDE benchmarks across diverse activation functions. Our results show consistent improvements in prediction accuracy, convergence stability, and robustness, with relative L2 errors reduced by up to two orders of magnitude over baseline models. Furthermore, we demonstrate that Mask-PINNs enable the effective use of wider networks, overcoming a key limitation in existing PINN frameworks.