Albatross: A scalable simulation-based inference pipeline for analysing stellar streams in the Milky Way

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Alvey, James, Gerdes, Mathis, Weniger, Christoph
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866916308208058368
author Alvey, James
Gerdes, Mathis
Weniger, Christoph
author_facet Alvey, James
Gerdes, Mathis
Weniger, Christoph
contents Stellar streams are potentially a very sensitive observational probe of galactic astrophysics, as well as the dark matter population in the Milky Way. On the other hand, performing a detailed, high-fidelity statistical analysis of these objects is challenging for a number of key reasons. Firstly, the modelling of streams across their (potentially billions of years old) dynamical age is complex and computationally costly. Secondly, their detection and classification in large surveys such as Gaia renders a robust statistical description regarding e.g., the stellar membership probabilities, challenging. As a result, the majority of current analyses must resort to simplified models that use only subsets or summaries of the high quality data. In this work, we develop a new analysis framework that takes advantage of advances in simulation-based inference techniques to perform complete analysis on complex stream models. To facilitate this, we develop a new, modular dynamical modelling code sstrax for stellar streams that is highly accelerated using jax. We test our analysis pipeline on a mock observation that resembles the GD1 stream, and demonstrate that we can perform robust inference on all relevant parts of the stream model simultaneously. Finally, we present some outlook as to how this approach can be developed further to perform more complete and accurate statistical analyses of current and future data.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2304_02032
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Albatross: A scalable simulation-based inference pipeline for analysing stellar streams in the Milky Way
Alvey, James
Gerdes, Mathis
Weniger, Christoph
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Stellar streams are potentially a very sensitive observational probe of galactic astrophysics, as well as the dark matter population in the Milky Way. On the other hand, performing a detailed, high-fidelity statistical analysis of these objects is challenging for a number of key reasons. Firstly, the modelling of streams across their (potentially billions of years old) dynamical age is complex and computationally costly. Secondly, their detection and classification in large surveys such as Gaia renders a robust statistical description regarding e.g., the stellar membership probabilities, challenging. As a result, the majority of current analyses must resort to simplified models that use only subsets or summaries of the high quality data. In this work, we develop a new analysis framework that takes advantage of advances in simulation-based inference techniques to perform complete analysis on complex stream models. To facilitate this, we develop a new, modular dynamical modelling code sstrax for stellar streams that is highly accelerated using jax. We test our analysis pipeline on a mock observation that resembles the GD1 stream, and demonstrate that we can perform robust inference on all relevant parts of the stream model simultaneously. Finally, we present some outlook as to how this approach can be developed further to perform more complete and accurate statistical analyses of current and future data.
title Albatross: A scalable simulation-based inference pipeline for analysing stellar streams in the Milky Way
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.02032