AI models of unstable flow exhibit hallucination
This addresses the challenge of AI reliability in fluid dynamics simulations, particularly for researchers in computational physics and engineering, though it is incremental as it builds on existing operator networks.
The study tackled the problem of AI models producing physically implausible solutions, or hallucinations, in modeling hydrodynamically unstable fluid flow like viscous fingering, and introduced DeepFingers, a framework that enforces balanced learning to accurately capture fingering patterns while preserving mixing metrics.
We report the first systematic evidence of hallucination in AI models of fluid dynamics, demonstrated in the canonical problem of hydrodynamically unstable transport known as viscous fingering. AI-based modeling of flow with instabilities remains challenging because rapidly evolving, multiscale fingering patterns are difficult to resolve accurately. We identify solutions that appear visually realistic yet are physically implausible, analogous to hallucinations in large language models. These hallucinations manifest as spurious fluid interfaces and reverse diffusion that violate conservation laws. We show that their origin lies in the spectral bias of AI models, which becomes dominant at high flow rates and viscosity contrasts. Guided by this insight, we introduce DeepFingers, a new framework for AI-driven fluid dynamics that enforces balanced learning across the full spectrum of spatial modes by combining the Fourier Neural Operator with a Deep Operator Network to predict the spatiotemporal evolution of viscous fingers. By conditioning on both time and viscosity contrast, DeepFingers learns mappings between successive concentration fields across regimes. The framework accurately captures tip splitting, finger merging, and channel formation while preserving global metrics of mixing. The results open a new research direction to investigate fundamental limitations in AI models of physical systems.