Scaling Laws for Emulation of Stellar Spectra

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Różański, Tomasz, Ting, Yuan-Sen
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866913884506423296
author Różański, Tomasz
Ting, Yuan-Sen
author_facet Różański, Tomasz
Ting, Yuan-Sen
contents Neural network-based emulators for the inference of stellar parameters and elemental abundances represent an increasingly popular methodology in modern spectroscopic surveys. However, these approaches are often constrained by their emulation precision and domain transfer capabilities. Greater generalizability has previously been achieved only with significantly larger model architectures, as demonstrated by Transformer-based models in natural language processing. This observation aligns with neural scaling laws, where model performance predictably improves with increased model size, computational resources allocated to model training, and training data volume. In this study, we demonstrate that these scaling laws also apply to Transformer-based spectral emulators in astronomy. Building upon our previous work with TransformerPayne and incorporating Maximum Update Parametrization techniques from natural language models, we provide training guidelines for scaling models to achieve optimal performance. Our results show that within the explored parameter space, clear scaling relationships emerge. These findings suggest that optimal computational resource allocation requires balanced scaling. Specifically, given a tenfold increase in training compute, achieving an optimal seven-fold reduction in mean squared error necessitates an approximately 2.5-fold increase in dataset size and a 3.8-fold increase in model size. This study establishes a foundation for developing spectral foundational models with enhanced domain transfer capabilities.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_18617
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Scaling Laws for Emulation of Stellar Spectra
Różański, Tomasz
Ting, Yuan-Sen
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Machine Learning
Neural network-based emulators for the inference of stellar parameters and elemental abundances represent an increasingly popular methodology in modern spectroscopic surveys. However, these approaches are often constrained by their emulation precision and domain transfer capabilities. Greater generalizability has previously been achieved only with significantly larger model architectures, as demonstrated by Transformer-based models in natural language processing. This observation aligns with neural scaling laws, where model performance predictably improves with increased model size, computational resources allocated to model training, and training data volume. In this study, we demonstrate that these scaling laws also apply to Transformer-based spectral emulators in astronomy. Building upon our previous work with TransformerPayne and incorporating Maximum Update Parametrization techniques from natural language models, we provide training guidelines for scaling models to achieve optimal performance. Our results show that within the explored parameter space, clear scaling relationships emerge. These findings suggest that optimal computational resource allocation requires balanced scaling. Specifically, given a tenfold increase in training compute, achieving an optimal seven-fold reduction in mean squared error necessitates an approximately 2.5-fold increase in dataset size and a 3.8-fold increase in model size. This study establishes a foundation for developing spectral foundational models with enhanced domain transfer capabilities.
title Scaling Laws for Emulation of Stellar Spectra
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.18617