Operator Learning for PDE Backstepping Control of Parabolic Equations on Time-Varying Domains

Mathematics > Optimization and Control [Submitted on 16 Jun 2026] Title:Operator Learning for PDE Backstepping Control of Parabolic Equations on Time-Varying Domains View PDF HTML (experimental)Abstract:This paper develops a learning-based boundary control framework for stabilizing a parabolic equation defined on time-varying spatial domain. Although the partial differential equation (PDE) backstepping method provides a systematic theoretical framework for such moving-boundary systems, its real-time implementation is hindered by the need to repeatedly solve time-varying kernel PDEs on evolving domains. To overcome this limitation, we first formulate the time-varying backstepping design as an operator that maps the moving-boundary trajectory to the corresponding backstepping kernel. By mapping the time-varying domain of the backstepping kernel equation onto a fixed reference domain, we establish the continuous dependence of the kernel on the moving-boundary trajectory, which provides the theoretical basis for approximating the backstepping design operator by a neural operator. Based on the approximate kernel operator, we construct the corresponding boundary feedback controller to stabilize the system. It is shown that the closed-loop system admits an exponential decay estimate on any prescribed finite time interval. For numerical implementation, DeepONet is employed to learn the time-varying kernel operator from offline-generated numerical kernel solutions and is subsequently deployed online to generate the required time-varying kernels without repeatedly solving the kernel PDE. Numerical benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed neural-operator-based implementation bypasses repeated online solution of the time-varying kernel PDE, achieves a significant acceleration of close to three orders of magnitude compared with conventional numerical kernel solvers, and thus enables real-time stabilization of the system on time-varying spatial domain. References & Citations Loading... Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Recommenders and Search Tools Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.