Assessing Galaxy Rotation Kinematics: Insights from Convolutional Neural Networks on Velocity Variations

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Chegeni, Amirmohammad, Hesar, Fatemeh Fazel, Raouf, Mojtaba, Foing, Bernard, Verbeek, Fons J.
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Chegeni, Amirmohammad
Hesar, Fatemeh Fazel
Raouf, Mojtaba
Foing, Bernard
Verbeek, Fons J.
author_facet Chegeni, Amirmohammad
Hesar, Fatemeh Fazel
Raouf, Mojtaba
Foing, Bernard
Verbeek, Fons J.
contents Distinguishing galaxies as either fast or slow rotators plays a vital role in understanding the processes behind galaxy formation and evolution. Standard techniques, which are based on the $λ_R$-spin parameter obtained from stellar kinematics, frequently face difficulties to classify fast and slow rotators accurately. These challenges arise particularly in cases where galaxies have complex interaction histories or exhibit significant morphological diversity. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) on classifying galaxy rotation kinematics based on stellar kinematic maps from the SAMI survey. Our results show that the optimal CNN architecture achieves an accuracy and precision of approximately 91% and 95% on the test dataset, respectively. Subsequently, we apply our trained model to classify previously unknown rotator galaxies for which traditional statistical tools have been unable to determine whether they exhibit fast or slow rotation, such as certain irregular galaxies or those in dense clusters. We also used Integrated Gradients (IG) to reveal the crucial kinematic features that influenced the CNN's classifications. This research highlights the power of CNNs to improve our comprehension of galaxy dynamics and emphasizes their potential to contribute to upcoming large-scale Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS) surveys.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_02622
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Assessing Galaxy Rotation Kinematics: Insights from Convolutional Neural Networks on Velocity Variations
Chegeni, Amirmohammad
Hesar, Fatemeh Fazel
Raouf, Mojtaba
Foing, Bernard
Verbeek, Fons J.
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Distinguishing galaxies as either fast or slow rotators plays a vital role in understanding the processes behind galaxy formation and evolution. Standard techniques, which are based on the $λ_R$-spin parameter obtained from stellar kinematics, frequently face difficulties to classify fast and slow rotators accurately. These challenges arise particularly in cases where galaxies have complex interaction histories or exhibit significant morphological diversity. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) on classifying galaxy rotation kinematics based on stellar kinematic maps from the SAMI survey. Our results show that the optimal CNN architecture achieves an accuracy and precision of approximately 91% and 95% on the test dataset, respectively. Subsequently, we apply our trained model to classify previously unknown rotator galaxies for which traditional statistical tools have been unable to determine whether they exhibit fast or slow rotation, such as certain irregular galaxies or those in dense clusters. We also used Integrated Gradients (IG) to reveal the crucial kinematic features that influenced the CNN's classifications. This research highlights the power of CNNs to improve our comprehension of galaxy dynamics and emphasizes their potential to contribute to upcoming large-scale Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS) surveys.
title Assessing Galaxy Rotation Kinematics: Insights from Convolutional Neural Networks on Velocity Variations
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.02622