Degeneracy-Aware Pulsar Parameter Estimation from Light Curves via Deep Learning and Test-Time Optimization

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Hauptverfasser: Siddik, Abu Bucker, Oyen, Diane, De, Soumi, Olmschenk, Greg, Kalapotharakos, Constantinos
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Siddik, Abu Bucker
Oyen, Diane
De, Soumi
Olmschenk, Greg
Kalapotharakos, Constantinos
author_facet Siddik, Abu Bucker
Oyen, Diane
De, Soumi
Olmschenk, Greg
Kalapotharakos, Constantinos
contents Probing properties of neutron stars from photometric observations of these objects helps us answer crucial questions at the forefront of multi-messenger astronomy, such as, what is behavior of highest density matter in extreme environments and what is the procedure of generation and evolution of magnetic fields in these astrophysical environments? However, uncertainties and degeneracies-where different parameter sets produce similar light curves-make this task challenging. We propose a deep learning framework for inferring pulsar parameters from observed light curves. Traditional deep learning models are not designed to produce multiple degenerate solutions for a given input. To address this, we introduce a custom loss function that incorporates a light curve emulator as a forward model, along with a dissimilarity loss that encourages the model to capture diverse, degenerate parameter sets for a given light curve. We further introduce a test-time optimization scheme that refines predicted parameters by minimizing the discrepancy between the observed light curve and those reconstructed by the forward model from predicted parameters during inference. The model is trained using a suite of state-of-the-art simulated pulsar light curves. Finally, we demonstrate that the parameter sets predicted by our approach reproduce light curves that are consistent with the true observation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_18807
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Degeneracy-Aware Pulsar Parameter Estimation from Light Curves via Deep Learning and Test-Time Optimization
Siddik, Abu Bucker
Oyen, Diane
De, Soumi
Olmschenk, Greg
Kalapotharakos, Constantinos
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Probing properties of neutron stars from photometric observations of these objects helps us answer crucial questions at the forefront of multi-messenger astronomy, such as, what is behavior of highest density matter in extreme environments and what is the procedure of generation and evolution of magnetic fields in these astrophysical environments? However, uncertainties and degeneracies-where different parameter sets produce similar light curves-make this task challenging. We propose a deep learning framework for inferring pulsar parameters from observed light curves. Traditional deep learning models are not designed to produce multiple degenerate solutions for a given input. To address this, we introduce a custom loss function that incorporates a light curve emulator as a forward model, along with a dissimilarity loss that encourages the model to capture diverse, degenerate parameter sets for a given light curve. We further introduce a test-time optimization scheme that refines predicted parameters by minimizing the discrepancy between the observed light curve and those reconstructed by the forward model from predicted parameters during inference. The model is trained using a suite of state-of-the-art simulated pulsar light curves. Finally, we demonstrate that the parameter sets predicted by our approach reproduce light curves that are consistent with the true observation.
title Degeneracy-Aware Pulsar Parameter Estimation from Light Curves via Deep Learning and Test-Time Optimization
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.18807