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Main Authors: Leyde, Konstantin, Green, Stephen R., Toubiana, Alexandre, Gair, Jonathan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.12093
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author Leyde, Konstantin
Green, Stephen R.
Toubiana, Alexandre
Gair, Jonathan
author_facet Leyde, Konstantin
Green, Stephen R.
Toubiana, Alexandre
Gair, Jonathan
contents We apply neural posterior estimation for fast-and-accurate hierarchical Bayesian inference of gravitational wave populations. We use a normalizing flow to estimate directly the population hyper-parameters from a collection of individual source observations. This approach provides complete freedom in event representation, automatic inclusion of selection effects, and (in contrast to likelihood estimation) without the need for stochastic samplers to obtain posterior samples. Since the number of events may be unknown when the network is trained, we split into sub-population analyses that we later recombine; this allows for fast sequential analyses as additional events are observed. We demonstrate our method on a toy problem of dark siren cosmology, and show that inference takes just a few minutes and scales to $\sim 600$ events before performance degrades. We argue that neural posterior estimation therefore represents a promising avenue for population inference with large numbers of events.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_12093
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Gravitational wave populations and cosmology with neural posterior estimation
Leyde, Konstantin
Green, Stephen R.
Toubiana, Alexandre
Gair, Jonathan
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
We apply neural posterior estimation for fast-and-accurate hierarchical Bayesian inference of gravitational wave populations. We use a normalizing flow to estimate directly the population hyper-parameters from a collection of individual source observations. This approach provides complete freedom in event representation, automatic inclusion of selection effects, and (in contrast to likelihood estimation) without the need for stochastic samplers to obtain posterior samples. Since the number of events may be unknown when the network is trained, we split into sub-population analyses that we later recombine; this allows for fast sequential analyses as additional events are observed. We demonstrate our method on a toy problem of dark siren cosmology, and show that inference takes just a few minutes and scales to $\sim 600$ events before performance degrades. We argue that neural posterior estimation therefore represents a promising avenue for population inference with large numbers of events.
title Gravitational wave populations and cosmology with neural posterior estimation
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.12093