On latent dynamics learning in nonlinear reduced order modeling

In this work, we present the novel mathematical framework of latent dynamics models (LDMs) for reduced order modeling of parameterized nonlinear time-dependent PDEs. Our framework casts this latter task as a nonlinear dimensionality reduction problem, while constraining the latent state to evolve accordingly to an (unknown) dynamical system. A time-continuous setting is employed to derive error and stability estimates for the LDM approximation of the full order model (FOM) solution. We analyze the impact of using an explicit Runge-Kutta scheme in the time-discrete setting, resulting in the $\Delta\text{LDM}$ formulation, and further explore the learnable setting, $\Delta\text{LDM}_\theta$, where deep neural networks approximate the discrete LDM components, while providing a bounded approximation error with respect to the FOM. Moreover, we extend the concept of parameterized Neural ODE - recently proposed as a possible way to build data-driven dynamical systems with varying input parameters - to be a convolutional architecture, where the input parameters information is injected by means of an affine modulation mechanism, while designing a convolutional autoencoder neural network able to retain spatial-coherence, thus enhancing interpretability at the latent level. Numerical experiments, including the Burgers' and the advection-reaction-diffusion equations, demonstrate the framework's ability to obtain, in a multi-query context, a time-continuous approximation of the FOM solution, thus being able to query the LDM approximation at any given time instance while retaining a prescribed level of accuracy. Our findings highlight the remarkable potential of the proposed LDMs, representing a mathematically rigorous framework to enhance the accuracy and approximation capabilities of reduced order modeling for time-dependent parameterized PDEs.