Learning Passive Continuous-Time Dynamics with Multistep Port-Hamiltonian Gaussian Processes
Abstract
We propose the multistep port-Hamiltonian Gaussian process (MS-PHS GP) to learn physically consistent continuous-time dynamics and a posterior over the Hamiltonian from noisy, irregularly-sampled trajectories. By placing a GP prior on the Hamiltonian surface and encoding variable-step multistep integrator constraints as finite linear functionals, MS-PHS GP enables closed-form conditioning of both the vector field and the Hamiltonian surface without latent states, while enforcing energy balance and passivity by design. We state a finite-sample vector-field bound that separates the estimation and variable-step discretization terms. Lastly, we demonstrate improved vector-field recovery and well-calibrated Hamiltonian uncertainty on mass-spring, Van der Pol, and Duffing benchmarks.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2510.00384,
title = {Learning Passive Continuous-Time Dynamics with Multistep Port-Hamiltonian Gaussian Processes},
author = {Chi Ho Leung and Philip E. Paré},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.00384},
year = {2025}
}