Graph Neural Network Prediction of Infrared Spectra of Interstellar Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

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Hauptverfasser: Tang, Guoqing, He, Jiang, Wang, Zhao, Qiu, Dong
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Tang, Guoqing
He, Jiang
Wang, Zhao
Qiu, Dong
author_facet Tang, Guoqing
He, Jiang
Wang, Zhao
Qiu, Dong
contents Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are recognized as the primary contributors to the aromatic infrared bands (AIBs) widely observed in space. However, analyzing these AIBs remains challenging because of the immense structural diversity within the PAH family, which makes the computation of reliable reference spectra difficult. To address this, we developed an efficient graph neural network (GNN) framework that can predict PAH absorption spectra up to 10,000 times faster than traditional quantum chemical methods. We evaluated four representative GNN architectures, including graph convolutional network (GCN), graph attention network (GAT), message passing neural network (MPNN), and attentive fingerprint (AFP). The AFP model is found to deliver the best overall performance and is further trained using five different spectral distance metrics as loss functions, among which the Jensen-Shannon divergence yields the most accurate and stable results. The model performs best for PAHs containing 20-40 carbon atoms, while accuracy decreases for larger molecules, reflecting the limited availability of training data. Overall, this framework offers a fast method to generate approximate reference spectra for small- to medium-sized PAHs, supporting future AIB analysis.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_12560
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Graph Neural Network Prediction of Infrared Spectra of Interstellar Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
Tang, Guoqing
He, Jiang
Wang, Zhao
Qiu, Dong
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are recognized as the primary contributors to the aromatic infrared bands (AIBs) widely observed in space. However, analyzing these AIBs remains challenging because of the immense structural diversity within the PAH family, which makes the computation of reliable reference spectra difficult. To address this, we developed an efficient graph neural network (GNN) framework that can predict PAH absorption spectra up to 10,000 times faster than traditional quantum chemical methods. We evaluated four representative GNN architectures, including graph convolutional network (GCN), graph attention network (GAT), message passing neural network (MPNN), and attentive fingerprint (AFP). The AFP model is found to deliver the best overall performance and is further trained using five different spectral distance metrics as loss functions, among which the Jensen-Shannon divergence yields the most accurate and stable results. The model performs best for PAHs containing 20-40 carbon atoms, while accuracy decreases for larger molecules, reflecting the limited availability of training data. Overall, this framework offers a fast method to generate approximate reference spectra for small- to medium-sized PAHs, supporting future AIB analysis.
title Graph Neural Network Prediction of Infrared Spectra of Interstellar Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.12560