Predicting Wave Reflection and Transmission in Heterogeneous Media via Fourier Operator-Based Transformer Modeling

arXiv cs.LG / 4/2/2026

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Key Points

  • The paper proposes a Fourier-operator-based vision transformer surrogate model to predict 1D Maxwell equation solutions across a material interface, capturing both wave reflection and transmission behaviors.
  • Training uses high-fidelity finite-volume (FV) simulation data with varied initial conditions and variations in one material’s speed of light, enabling learning across multiple interaction regimes.
  • The approach uses an autoregressive transformer framework that jointly learns physical and frequency embeddings, while Fourier transforms in latent space help match wave-number spectra to the simulation ground truth.
  • Prediction error is shown to grow roughly linearly over time with a sharp increase at the interface, yet relative errors remain under 10% for more than 75 time-step rollouts.
  • The results suggest the model can handle discontinuities and partially unknown material properties with adequate accuracy for practical surrogate modeling of wave physics.

Abstract

We develop a machine learning (ML) surrogate model to approximate solutions to Maxwell's equations in one dimension, focusing on scenarios involving a material interface that reflects and transmits electro-magnetic waves. Derived from high-fidelity Finite Volume (FV) simulations, our training data includes variations of the initial conditions, as well as variations in one material's speed of light, allowing for the model to learn a range of wave-material interaction behaviors. The ML model autoregressively learns both the physical and frequency embeddings in a vision transformer-based framework. By incorporating Fourier transforms in the latent space, the wave number spectra of the solutions aligns closely with the simulation data. Prediction errors exhibit an approximately linear growth over time with a sharp increase at the material interface. Test results show that the ML solution has adequate relative errors below 10\% in over 75 time step rollouts, despite the presence of the discontinuity and unknown material properties.