In this paper we investigate the impact of transient noise artifacts, or glitches, on gravitational- wave inference from ground-based interferometer data, and test how modeling and subtracting these glitches affects the inferred parameters. Due to their time-frequency morphology, broadband glitches cause moderate to significant biasing of posterior distributions away from true values. In contrast, narrowband glitches induce negligible biasing effects, due to distinct signal and glitch morphologies. We inject simulated binary black hole signals into data containing three occurring glitch types from past LIGO-Virgo observing runs, and reconstruct both signal and glitch waveforms using BayesWave, a wavelet-based Bayesian analysis. We apply the standard LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA deglitching pro- cedure to the detector data, which consists of subtracting from calibrated LIGO data the glitch waveform estimated by the joint BayesWave inference. We produce posterior distributions on the parameters of the injected signal before and after subtracting the glitch, and we show that removing the transient noise effectively mitigates bias from broadband glitches. This study provides a baseline validation of existing techniques, while demonstrating waveform reconstruction improvements to the Bayesian algorithm for robust astrophysical characterization in glitch-prone detector data.
more »
« less
Statistically-informed deep learning for gravitational wave parameter estimation
Abstract We introduce deep learning models to estimate the masses of the binary components of black hole mergers, ( m 1 , m 2 ) , and three astrophysical properties of the post-merger compact remnant, namely, the final spin, a f , and the frequency and damping time of the ringdown oscillations of the fundamental ℓ = m = 2 bar mode, ( ω R , ω I ) . Our neural networks combine a modified WaveNet architecture with contrastive learning and normalizing flow. We validate these models against a Gaussian conjugate prior family whose posterior distribution is described by a closed analytical expression. Upon confirming that our models produce statistically consistent results, we used them to estimate the astrophysical parameters ( m 1 , m 2 , a f , ω R , ω I ) of five binary black holes: GW150914 , GW170104 , GW170814 , GW190521 and GW190630 . We use PyCBC Inference to directly compare traditional Bayesian methodologies for parameter estimation with our deep learning based posterior distributions. Our results show that our neural network models predict posterior distributions that encode physical correlations, and that our data-driven median results and 90% confidence intervals are similar to those produced with gravitational wave Bayesian analyses. This methodology requires a single V100 NVIDIA GPU to produce median values and posterior distributions within two milliseconds for each event. This neural network, and a tutorial for its use, are available at the Data and Learning Hub for Science .
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1934757
- PAR ID:
- 10352446
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Machine Learning: Science and Technology
- Volume:
- 3
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2632-2153
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 015007
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract Understanding the evolution of massive binary stars requires accurate estimates of their masses. This understanding is critically important because massive star evolution can potentially lead to gravitational-wave sources such as binary black holes or neutron stars. For Wolf–Rayet (WR) stars with optically thick stellar winds, their masses can only be determined with accurate inclination angle estimates from binary systems which have spectroscopic M sin i measurements. Orbitally phased polarization signals can encode the inclination angle of binary systems, where the WR winds act as scattering regions. We investigated four Wolf–Rayet + O star binary systems, WR 42, WR 79, WR 127, and WR 153, with publicly available phased polarization data to estimate their masses. To avoid the biases present in analytic models of polarization while retaining computational expediency, we used a Monte Carlo radiative-transfer model accurately emulated by a neural network. We used the emulated model to investigate the posterior distribution of the parameters of our four systems. Our mass estimates calculated from the estimated inclination angles put strong constraints on existing mass estimates for three of the systems, and disagree with the existing mass estimates for WR 153. We recommend a concerted effort to obtain polarization observations that can be used to estimate the masses of WR binary systems and increase our understanding of their evolutionary paths.more » « less
-
Abstract Inference is crucial in modern astronomical research, where hidden astrophysical features and patterns are often estimated from indirect and noisy measurements. Inferring the posterior of hidden features, conditioned on the observed measurements, is essential for understanding the uncertainty of results and downstream scientific interpretations. Traditional approaches for posterior estimation include sampling-based methods and variational inference (VI). However, sampling-based methods are typically slow for high-dimensional inverse problems, while VI often lacks estimation accuracy. In this paper, we proposeα-deep probabilistic inference, a deep learning framework that first learns an approximate posterior usingα-divergence VI paired with a generative neural network, and then produces more accurate posterior samples through importance reweighting of the network samples. It inherits strengths from both sampling and VI methods: it is fast, accurate, and more scalable to high-dimensional problems than conventional sampling-based approaches. We apply our approach to two high-impact astronomical inference problems using real data: exoplanet astrometry and black hole feature extraction.more » « less
-
Computational image reconstruction algorithms generally produce a single image without any measure of uncertainty or confidence. Regularized Maximum Likelihood (RML) and feed-forward deep learning approaches for inverse problems typically focus on recovering a point estimate. This is a serious limitation when working with under-determined imaging systems, where it is conceivable that multiple image modes would be consistent with the measured data. Characterizing the space of probable images that explain the observational data is therefore crucial. In this paper, we propose a variational deep probabilistic imaging approach to quantify reconstruction uncertainty. Deep Probabilistic Imaging (DPI) employs an untrained deep generative model to estimate a posterior distribution of an unobserved image. This approach does not require any training data; instead, it optimizes the weights of a neural network to generate image samples that fit a particular measurement dataset. Once the network weights have been learned, the posterior distribution can be efficiently sampled. We demonstrate this approach in the context of interferometric radio imaging, which is used for black hole imaging with the Event Horizon Telescope, and compressed sensing Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).more » « less
-
arXiv (Ed.)In the event of a nuclear accident, or the detonation of a radiological dispersal device, quickly locating the source of the accident or blast is important for emergency response and environmental decontamination. At a specified time after a simulated instantaneous release of an aerosolized radioactive contaminant, measurements are recorded downwind from an array of radiation sensors. Neural networks are employed to infer the source release parameters in an accurate and rapid manner using sensor and mean wind speed data. We consider two neural network constructions that quantify the uncertainty of the predicted values; a categorical classification neural network and a Bayesian neural network. With the categorical classification neural network, we partition the spatial domain and treat each partition as a separate class for which we estimate the probability that it contains the true source location. In a Bayesian neural network, the weights and biases have a distribution rather than a single optimal value. With each evaluation, these distributions are sampled, yielding a different prediction with each evaluation. The trained Bayesian neural network is thus evaluated to construct posterior densities for the release parameters. Results are compared to Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) results found using the Delayed Rejection Adaptive Metropolis Algorithm. The Bayesian neural network approach is generally much cheaper computationally than the MCMC approach as it relies on the computational cost of the neural network evaluation to generate posterior densities as opposed to the MCMC approach which depends on the computational expense of the transport and radiation detection models.more » « less
An official website of the United States government

