Low-latency Forecasts of Kilonova Light Curves for Rubin and ZTF

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Main Authors: Plestkova, Natalya, Sravan, Niharika, Kiendrebeogo, R. Weizmann, Coughlin, Michael W., Davis, Derek, Toivonen, Andrew, Laz, Theophile Jegou du, Ahumada, Tomás, Barna, Tyler, Helou, George, Smith, Roger, Rusholme, Ben, Laher, Russ R., Mahabal, Ashish A.
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Published: 2025
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author Plestkova, Natalya
Sravan, Niharika
Kiendrebeogo, R. Weizmann
Coughlin, Michael W.
Davis, Derek
Toivonen, Andrew
Laz, Theophile Jegou du
Ahumada, Tomás
Barna, Tyler
Helou, George
Smith, Roger
Rusholme, Ben
Laher, Russ R.
Mahabal, Ashish A.
author_facet Plestkova, Natalya
Sravan, Niharika
Kiendrebeogo, R. Weizmann
Coughlin, Michael W.
Davis, Derek
Toivonen, Andrew
Laz, Theophile Jegou du
Ahumada, Tomás
Barna, Tyler
Helou, George
Smith, Roger
Rusholme, Ben
Laher, Russ R.
Mahabal, Ashish A.
contents Follow-up of gravitational-wave events by wide-field surveys is a crucial tool for the discovery of electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave sources, such as kilonovae. Machine learning tools can play an important role in aiding search efforts. We have developed a public tool to predict kilonova light curves using simulated low-latency alert data from the International Gravitational Wave Network during observing runs 4 (O4) and 5 (O5). It uses a bidirectional long-short-term memory (LSTM) model to forecast kilonova light curves from binary neutron star and neutron star-black hole mergers in the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time filters. The model achieves a test mean squared error (MSE) of 0.19 for ZTF filters and 0.22 for Rubin filters, calculated by averaging the squared error over all time steps, filters, and light curves in the test set. We verify the performance of the model against merger events followed-up by the ZTF partnership during O4a and O4b. We also analyze the effect of incorporating skymaps and constraints on physical features such as ejecta mass through a hybrid convolutional neural network and LSTM model. Using ejecta mass, the performance of the model improves to an MSE of 0.1. However, using full skymap information results in slightly lower model performance. Our models are publicly available and can help to add important information to help plan follow-up of candidate events discovered by current and next-generation public surveys.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_11785
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Low-latency Forecasts of Kilonova Light Curves for Rubin and ZTF
Plestkova, Natalya
Sravan, Niharika
Kiendrebeogo, R. Weizmann
Coughlin, Michael W.
Davis, Derek
Toivonen, Andrew
Laz, Theophile Jegou du
Ahumada, Tomás
Barna, Tyler
Helou, George
Smith, Roger
Rusholme, Ben
Laher, Russ R.
Mahabal, Ashish A.
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Follow-up of gravitational-wave events by wide-field surveys is a crucial tool for the discovery of electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave sources, such as kilonovae. Machine learning tools can play an important role in aiding search efforts. We have developed a public tool to predict kilonova light curves using simulated low-latency alert data from the International Gravitational Wave Network during observing runs 4 (O4) and 5 (O5). It uses a bidirectional long-short-term memory (LSTM) model to forecast kilonova light curves from binary neutron star and neutron star-black hole mergers in the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time filters. The model achieves a test mean squared error (MSE) of 0.19 for ZTF filters and 0.22 for Rubin filters, calculated by averaging the squared error over all time steps, filters, and light curves in the test set. We verify the performance of the model against merger events followed-up by the ZTF partnership during O4a and O4b. We also analyze the effect of incorporating skymaps and constraints on physical features such as ejecta mass through a hybrid convolutional neural network and LSTM model. Using ejecta mass, the performance of the model improves to an MSE of 0.1. However, using full skymap information results in slightly lower model performance. Our models are publicly available and can help to add important information to help plan follow-up of candidate events discovered by current and next-generation public surveys.
title Low-latency Forecasts of Kilonova Light Curves for Rubin and ZTF
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11785