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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Revealing the Galaxy–Halo Connection through Machine Learning

Abstract Understanding the connections between galaxy stellar mass, star formation rate, and dark matter halo mass represents a key goal of the theory of galaxy formation. Cosmological simulations that include hydrodynamics, physical treatments of star formation, feedback from supernovae, and the radiative transfer of ionizing photons can capture the processes relevant for establishing these connections. The complexity of these physics can prove difficult to disentangle and obfuscate how mass-dependent trends in the galaxy population originate. Here, we train a machine-learning method called Explainable Boosting Machines (EBMs) to infer how the stellar mass and star formation rate of nearly 6 million galaxies simulated by the Cosmic Reionization on Computers project depend on the physical properties of halo mass, the peak circular velocity of the galaxy during its formation history v peak , cosmic environment, and redshift. The resulting EBM models reveal the relative importance of these properties in setting galaxy stellar mass and star formation rate, with v peak providing the most dominant contribution. Environmental properties provide substantial improvements for modeling the stellar mass and star formation rate in only ≲10% of the simulated galaxies. We also provide alternative formulations of EBM models that enable low-resolution simulations, which cannot track the interior structure of dark matter halos, to predict the stellar mass and star formation rate of galaxies computed by high-resolution simulations with detailed baryonic physics.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Current status of the light neutralino thermal dark matter in the phenomenological MSSM

In a previous publication, we studied the parameter space of the phenomenological minimal Supersymmetric standard model with a light neutralino thermal dark matter ( M χ ˜ 1 0 ≤ M h / 2 ) and observed that the recent results from the dark matter and collider experiments put strong constraints on this scenario. In this work, we present in detail the arguments behind the robustness of this result against scanning over the large number of parameters in phenomenological minimal Supersymmetric standard model. The Run 3 of LHC will be crucial in probing the surviving regions of the parameter space. We further investigate the impact of light staus on our parameter space and also provide benchmarks that can be interesting for Run 3 of LHC. We analyze these benchmarks at the LHC using the machine learning framework of . Finally, we also discuss the effect of nonstandard cosmology on the parameter space. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

Barman, Rahool Kumar↗
DOE OSTI2024

Reinterpreting fundamental plane correlations with machine learning

ABSTRACT This work explores the relationships between galaxy sizes and related observable galaxy properties in a large volume cosmological hydrodynamical simulation. The objectives of this work are to develop a better understanding of both the correlations between galaxy properties and the influence of environment on galaxy physics in order to build an improved model for the galaxy sizes, building off of the fundamental plane. With an accurate intrinsic galaxy size predictor, the residuals in the observed galaxy sizes can potentially be used for multiple cosmological applications, including making measurements of galaxy velocities in spectroscopic samples, estimating the rate of cosmic expansion, and constraining the uncertainties in the photometric redshifts of galaxies. Using projection pursuit regression, the model accurately predicts intrinsic galaxy sizes and have residuals which have limited correlation with galaxy properties. The model decreases the spatial correlation of galaxy size residuals by a factor of ∼5 at small scales compared to the baseline correlation when the mean size is used as a predictor.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗
DOE OSTI2024

Inferring the Redshift of More than 150 GRBs with a Machine-learning Ensemble Model

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), due to their high luminosities, are detected up to a redshift of 10, and thus have the potential to be vital cosmological probes of early processes in the Universe. Fulfilling this potential requires a large sample of GRBs with known redshifts, but due to observational limitations, only 11% have known redshifts (z). There have been numerous attempts to estimate redshifts via correlation studies, most of which have led to inaccurate predictions. To overcome this, we estimated GRB redshift via an ensemble-supervised machine-learning (ML) model that uses X-ray afterglows of long-duration GRBs observed by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. The estimated redshifts are strongly correlated (a Pearson coefficient of 0.93) and have an rms error, namely, the square root of the average squared error $\langle$Δz 2 $\rangle$, of 0.46 with the observed redshifts showing the reliability of this method. The addition of GRB afterglow parameters improves the predictions considerably by 63% compared to previous results in peer-reviewed literature. Finally, we use our ML model to infer the redshifts of 154 GRBs, which increase the known redshifts of long GRBs with plateaus by 94%, a significant milestone for enhancing GRB population studies that require large samples with redshift.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Uncovering New Physics in the Cosmic Microwave Background: Developing Novel Theoretical Models and Machine-Learning-Powered Constraints

The search for evidence of new physics via its signatures in the cosmos is a cornerstone goal of the Office of High Energy Physics in the DOE Office of Science. Indeed, the current concordance cosmological model provides intriguing hints for beyond-the-standard-model (BSM) physics, such as dark matter and dark energy. Recently, a potential breakdown has appeared in this model, which could be initial evidence toward a further important revision in our fundamental theoretical understanding of cosmology. This breakdown is reflected in disagreements between inferences of the current expansion rate of the universe, H 0 (the Hubble constant), based on indirect, cosmological data (e.g., from the early universe) and based on direct, local measurements. Despite significant effort, a compelling new concordance cosmological model has yet to be found; achieving significant progress on this front was the first major focus of the project. Theoretical considerations indicate that if the observational discrepancies are not due to systematic errors, they strongly suggest new physics operating in the redshift range just prior to recombination, when cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons last scattered. Crucially, almost all such models produce unique signatures in the CMB temperature and polarization power spectra, which will be measured with unprecedented precision by ongoing and upcoming experiments, including the DOE-supported CMB-S4 project. However, these subtle hints of new physics must be uncovered from beneath a swath of Galactic and extragalactic foreground contamination. Current CMB analysis methods, although powerful, do not optimally infer the CMB power spectrum in the presence of non-Gaussian foregrounds. There is thus scope for theoretical improvement in this foundational challenge of cosmological inference, which formed the second major focus of the project. The primary objectives of the project were two-fold: (1) to develop new theoretical models in cosmology that can restore concordance amongst the full suite of cosmological data sets, thereby potentially providing evidence of novel BSM physics; (2) to develop new theoretical machinery to enable significant sensitivity improvements in searches for new physics in cosmology, particularly via the CMB power spectrum. The two objectives are intertwined, as the analysis methodology improvements in (2) will enable the tightest possible constraints on the signatures of new physics predicted by the novel scenarios in (1). The theoretical approaches to restore concordance focused on models involving novel scalar field dynamics in the pre-recombination universe (the “early dark energy” scenario and modifications thereof), as well as couplings between this field and other components in the standard cosmological model, such as dark matter. We also studied a model featuring a generalization of the decaying dark matter scenario, in which a sub-component of dark matter converts into dark radiation at late times in cosmic history. While these ideas are mostly driven by phenomenological considerations, this tactic has proven extremely successful in cosmology throughout the past few decades, including in the early history of evidence for dark matter and dark energy. The new theoretical machinery envisioned in (2) is undergirded by developments in signal processing and machine learning, which will enable improvements in CMB power spectrum estimation in the presence of non-Gaussian foreground contaminants. In turn, this will yield optimal sensitivity in searches for new physics in the CMB, by maximizing the cosmological information that is extracted from this observable. The most ambitious outcome of this work would be the construction of a new cosmological model that restores concordance amongst data sets. Although the individual models studied here did not fully achieve that goal, significant progress in narrowing down the model space was made, as described below. Moreover, the outcome of the methodological improvements in (2) will significantly impact a wide range of theoretical cosmology, by enabling the tightest possible constraints on any model that leaves novel signatures in the CMB temperature and polarization power spectra.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Galaxy morphological classification in deep-wide surveys via unsupervised machine learning

ABSTRACT Galaxy morphology is a fundamental quantity, which is essential not only for the full spectrum of galaxy-evolution studies, but also for a plethora of science in observational cosmology (e.g. as a prior for photometric-redshift measurements and as contextual data for transient light-curve classifications). While a rich literature exists on morphological-classification techniques, the unprecedented data volumes, coupled, in some cases, with the short cadences of forthcoming ‘Big-Data’ surveys (e.g. from the LSST), present novel challenges for this field. Large data volumes make such data sets intractable for visual inspection (even via massively distributed platforms like Galaxy Zoo), while short cadences make it difficult to employ techniques like supervised machine learning, since it may be impractical to repeatedly produce training sets on short time-scales. Unsupervised machine learning, which does not require training sets, is ideally suited to the morphological analysis of new and forthcoming surveys. Here, we employ an algorithm that performs clustering of graph representations, in order to group image patches with similar visual properties and objects constructed from those patches, like galaxies. We implement the algorithm on the Hyper-Suprime-Cam Subaru-Strategic-Program Ultra-Deep survey, to autonomously reduce the galaxy population to a small number (160) of ‘morphological clusters’, populated by galaxies with similar morphologies, which are then benchmarked using visual inspection. The morphological classifications (which we release publicly) exhibit a high level of purity, and reproduce known trends in key galaxy properties as a function of morphological type at z < 1 (e.g. stellar-mass functions, rest-frame colours, and the position of galaxies on the star-formation main sequence). Our study demonstrates the power of unsupervised machine learning in performing accurate morphological analysis, which will become indispensable in this new era of deep-wide surveys.

Martin, G.↗
DOE OSTI2020

miniGAN: A Generative Adversarial Network proxy application WBS 2.2.6.08 ECP-2.1.3 (Q3 FY2020 Milestone Report) (V.1.0)

In order to support the machine learning co-design needs of ECP applications in current and future DOE HPC hardware, we have developed a generative adversarial network (GAN) proxy application, miniGAN, that has been released through the ECP proxy application suite. The proxy application is representative of the needs of ExaLearn's target applications, specifically the Cosmoflow and ExaGAN cosmology applications and the ExaWind energy application. The proxy application also demonstrates the first use of performance portable kernels within widely-used machine learning frameworks: PyTorch (Facebook) and Horovod (Uber). We provide performance scaling results for similar workloads to ExaGAN and a profile of individual GAN training components.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

The Dark Energy Survey: Cosmology Results with ∼1500 New High-redshift Type Ia Supernovae Using the Full 5 yr Data Set

Abstract We present cosmological constraints from the sample of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) discovered and measured during the full 5 yr of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) SN program. In contrast to most previous cosmological samples, in which SNe are classified based on their spectra, we classify the DES SNe using a machine learning algorithm applied to their light curves in four photometric bands. Spectroscopic redshifts are acquired from a dedicated follow-up survey of the host galaxies. After accounting for the likelihood of each SN being an SN Ia, we find 1635 DES SNe in the redshift range 0.10 < z < 1.13 that pass quality selection criteria sufficient to constrain cosmological parameters. This quintuples the number of high-quality z > 0.5 SNe compared to the previous leading compilation of Pantheon+ and results in the tightest cosmological constraints achieved by any SN data set to date. To derive cosmological constraints, we combine the DES SN data with a high-quality external low-redshift sample consisting of 194 SNe Ia spanning 0.025 < z < 0.10. Using SN data alone and including systematic uncertainties, we find Ω M = 0.352 ± 0.017 in flat ΛCDM. SN data alone now require acceleration ( q 0 < 0 in ΛCDM) with over 5 σ confidence. We find ( Ω M , w ) = ( 0.264 − 0.096 + 0.074 , − 0.80 − 0.16 + 0.14 ) in flat w CDM. For flat w 0 w a CDM, we find ( Ω M , w 0 , w a ) = ( 0.495 − 0.043 + 0.033 , − 0.36 − 0.30 + 0.36 , − 8.8 − 4.5 + 3.7 ) , consistent with a constant equation of state to within ∼2 σ . Including Planck cosmic microwave background, Sloan Digital Sky Survey baryon acoustic oscillation, and DES 3 × 2pt data gives (Ω M , w ) = (0.321 ± 0.007, −0.941 ± 0.026). In all cases, dark energy is consistent with a cosmological constant to within ∼2 σ . Systematic errors on cosmological parameters are subdominant compared to statistical errors; these results thus pave the way for future photometrically classified SN analyses.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Multiscale Flow for robust and optimal cosmological analysis

We propose Multiscale Flow, a generative Normalizing Flow that creates samples and models the field-level likelihood of two-dimensional cosmological data such as weak lensing. Multiscale Flow uses hierarchical decomposition of cosmological fields via a wavelet basis and then models different wavelet components separately as Normalizing Flows. The log-likelihood of the original cosmological field can be recovered by summing over the log-likelihood of each wavelet term. This decomposition allows us to separate the information from different scales and identify distribution shifts in the data such as unknown scale-dependent systematics. The resulting likelihood analysis can not only identify these types of systematics, but can also be made optimal, in the sense that the Multiscale Flow can learn the full likelihood at the field without any dimensionality reduction. We apply Multiscale Flow to weak lensing mock datasets for cosmological inference and show that it significantly outperforms traditional summary statistics such as power spectrum and peak counts, as well as machine learning–based summary statistics such as scattering transform and convolutional neural networks. We further show that Multiscale Flow is able to identify distribution shifts not in the training data such as baryonic effects. Finally, we demonstrate that Multiscale Flow can be used to generate realistic samples of weak lensing data.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Computing Nonlinear Power Spectra Across Dynamical Dark Energy Model Space with Neural ODEs

I show how to compute the nonlinear power spectrum across the entire $w(z)$ dynamical dark energy model space. Using synthetic ΛCDM data, I train a neural ordinary differential equation (ODE) to infer the evolution of the nonlinear matter power spectrum as a function of the background expansion and mean matter density across ∼9 Gyr of cosmic evolution. After training, the model generalises to any dynamical dark energy model parameterised by $w(z)$. With little optimisation, the neural ODE is accurate to within 4% up to $k = 5\, h\, {\mathrm Mpc}^{−1}$. Unlike simulation rescaling methods, neural ODEs naturally extend to summary statistics beyond the power spectrum that are sensitive to the growth history.

cosmology↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Machine Learning Approach to the Detection of Ghosting Artifacts in Dark Energy Survey Images

Unwanted artifacts that often plague astronomical images arise from a number of sources that include imperfect optics, faulty image sensors, cosmic ray hits, and even airplanes and satellites. One major source that is dicult to avoid is known as ghosting, and is caused by the scattering and internal reflections of light o of the telescope’s mechanical and optical components. Detecting ghosting artifacts eciently in the large cosmological surveys that will acquire petabytes of data can be a daunting task. In this paper, we use data from the Dark Energy Survey to develop, train, and validate a machine learning model to detect ghosts based on convolutional neural networks. The model architecture and training procedure is discussed in detail, and the performance on the training and validation set presented. Testing is performed on data and results are compared with those from a ray-tracing algorithm. A proof-of-principle is demonstrated that shows promise for Stage IV surveys and beyond.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Neural network based emulation of galaxy power spectrum covariances: A reanalysis of BOSS DR12 data

We train neural networks to quickly generate redshift-space galaxy power spectrum covariances from a given parameter set (cosmology and galaxy bias). This covariance emulator utilizes a combination of traditional fully connected network layers and transformer architecture to accurately predict covariance matrices for the high redshift, north galactic cap sample of the BOSS DR12 galaxy catalog. We run simulated likelihood analyses with emulated and brute-force computed covariances, and we quantify the network’s performance via two different metrics: (1) difference in Χ 2 and (2) likelihood contours for simulated BOSS DR 12 analyses. We find that the emulator returns excellent results over a large parameter range. We then use our emulator to perform a reanalysis of the BOSS HighZ NGC galaxy power spectrum, and find that varying covariance with cosmology along with the model vector produces Ω m = $0.27⁢6$$^{+0.013}_{–0.015}$, H 0 = 70.2 ± 1.9 km/s/Mpc, and σ 8 = $0.67⁢4$$^{+0.058}_{–0.077}$. These constraints represent an average 0.46⁢σ shift in best-fit values and a 5% increase in constraining power compared to fixing the covariance matrix (Ω m = 0.293 ± 0.017, H 0 = 70.3 ± 2.0 km/s/Mpc, σ 8 = $0.70⁢2$$^{+0.063}_{–0.075}$). As a result, this work demonstrates that emulators for more complex cosmological quantities than second-order statistics can be trained over a wide parameter range at sufficiently high accuracy to be implemented in realistic likelihood analyses.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Deep Learning Identifies High-$z$ Galaxies in a Central Blue Nugget Phase in a Characteristic Mass Range

We use machine learning to identify in color images of high-redshift galaxies an astrophysical phenomenon predicted by cosmological simulations. This phenomenon, called the blue nugget (BN) phase, is the compact star-forming phase in the central regions of many growing galaxies that follows an earlier phase of gas compaction and is followed by a central quenching phase. We train a convolutional neural network (CNN) with mock "observed" images of simulated galaxies at three phases of evolution— pre-BN, BN, and post-BN—and demonstrate that the CNN successfully retrieves the three phases in other simulated galaxies. We show that BNs are identified by the CNN within a time window of ~0.15 Hubble times. When the trained CNN is applied to observed galaxies from the CANDELS survey at $z$ = 1–3, it successfully identifies galaxies at the three phases. We find that the observed BNs are preferentially found in galaxies at a characteristic stellar mass range, 10 9.2–10.3 $M_⊙$ at all redshifts. This is consistent with the characteristic galaxy mass for BNs as detected in the simulations and is meaningful because it is revealed in the observations when the direct information concerning the total galaxy luminosity has been eliminated from the training set. This technique can be applied to the classification of other astrophysical phenomena for improved comparison of theory and observations in the era of large imaging surveys and cosmological simulations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Constraining Galaxy-Halo connection using machine learning

We investigate the potential of machine learning (ML) methods to model small-scale galaxy clustering for constraining Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) parameters. Our analysis reveals that while many ML algorithms report good statistical fits, they often yield likelihood contours that are significantly biased in both mean values and variances relative to the true model parameters. This highlights the importance of careful data processing and algorithm selection in ML applications for galaxy clustering, as even seemingly robust methods can lead to biased results if not applied correctly. ML tools offer a promising approach to exploring the HOD parameter space with significantly reduced computational costs compared to traditional brute-force methods if their robustness is established. Using our ANN-based pipeline, we successfully recreate some standard results from recent literature. Properly restricting the HOD parameter space, transforming the training data, and carefully selecting ML algorithms are essential for achieving unbiased and robust predictions. Among the methods tested, artificial neural networks (ANNs) outperform random forests (RF) and ridge regression in predicting clustering statistics, when the HOD prior space is appropriately restricted. We demonstrate these findings using the projected two-point correlation function (w p (r p )), angular multipoles of the correlation function (ξ ℓ (r)), and the void probability function (VPF) of Luminous Red Galaxies from Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument mocks. Our results show that while combining w p (r p ) and VPF improves parameter constraints, adding the multipoles ξ 0 , ξ 2 , and ξ 4 to w p (r p ) does not significantly improve the constraints.

cosmology↗
DOE OSTI2023

A Stochastic Approach to Reconstruct Gamma-Ray-burst Light Curves

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), as they are observed at high redshift ( z = 9.4), are vital to cosmological studies and investigating Population III stars. To tackle these studies, we need correlations among relevant GRB variables with the requirement of small uncertainties on their variables. Thus, we must have good coverage of GRB light curves (LCs). However, gaps in the LC hinder the precise determination of GRB properties and are often unavoidable. Therefore, extensive categorization of GRB LCs remains a hurdle. We address LC gaps using a stochastic reconstruction, wherein we fit two preexisting models (the Willingale model; W07; and a broken power law; BPL) to the observed LC, then use the distribution of flux residuals from the original data to generate data to fill in the temporal gaps. We also demonstrate a model-independent LC reconstruction via Gaussian processes. At 10% noise, the uncertainty of the end time of the plateau, its correspondent flux, and the temporal decay index after the plateau decreases by 33.3%, 35.03%, and 43.32% on average for the W07, and by 33.3%, 30.78%, 43.9% for the BPL, respectively. The uncertainty of the slope of the plateau decreases by 14.76% in the BPL. After using the Gaussian process technique, we see similar trends of a decrease in uncertainty for all model parameters for both the W07 and BPL models. These improvements are essential for the application of GRBs as standard candles in cosmology, for the investigation of theoretical models, and for inferring the redshift of GRBs with future machine-learning analyses.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

On the quenching of star formation in observed and simulated central galaxies: evidence for the role of integrated AGN feedback

ABSTRACT In this paper, we investigate how massive central galaxies cease their star formation by comparing theoretical predictions from cosmological simulations: EAGLE, Illustris, and IllustrisTNG with observations of the local Universe from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Our machine learning (ML) classification reveals supermassive black hole mass (MBH) as the most predictive parameter in determining whether a galaxy is star forming or quenched at redshift z = 0 in all three simulations. This predicted consequence of active galactic nucleus (AGN) quenching is reflected in the observations, where it is true for a range of indirect estimates of MBH via proxies as well as its dynamical measurements. Our partial correlation analysis shows that other galactic parameters lose their strong association with quiescence, once their correlations with MBH are accounted for. In simulations, we demonstrate that it is the integrated power output of the AGN, rather than its instantaneous activity, which causes galaxies to quench. Finally, we analyse the change in molecular gas content of galaxies from star-forming to passive populations. We find that both gas fractions (fgas) and star formation efficiencies (SFEs) decrease upon transition to quiescence in the observations but SFE is more predictive than fgas in the ML passive/star-forming classification. These trends in the SDSS are most closely recovered in IllustrisTNG and are in direct contrast with the predictions made by Illustris. We conclude that a viable AGN feedback prescription can be achieved by a combination of preventative feedback and turbulence injection which together quench star formation in central galaxies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗