Incorporating neutron star physics into gravitational wave inference with physics-informed priors using normalizing flows
利用归一化流构造物理信息先验,将中子星物理纳入引力波推断
Bayesian inference, widely used in gravitational wave parameter estimation, depends on the choice of priors, i.e., on our previously existing knowledge. However, to investigate neutron star mergers, priors are often chosen in an agnostic way, leaving valuable information from nuclear physics and independent observations of neutron stars unused. In this work, we propose to encode information on neutron star physics into physics-informed prior distributions constructed with normalizing flows. These priors take input from constraints on the nuclear equation of state and neutron star mass distributions. Applied to GW170817, GW190425, and GW230529, we highlight two contributions of the framework. First, we demonstrate its ability to provide source classification and to enable model selection of equation-of-state constraints for loud signals such as GW170817, directly from the gravitational wave data. Second, we obtain narrower constraints on the source properties through these informed priors. As a result, these physics-informed priors consistently recover higher luminosity distances compared to agnostic priors. Our method provides a scalable way for classifying future ambiguous low-mass mergers observed through gravitational waves and for informing single-event gravitational wave data analysis with neutron star physics.
展开 ▾同时编码核物态方程约束与 NS 质量分布,构造可处理的归一化流联合先验,支持单事件贝叶斯模型选择;对 GW170817 纯引力波分析得到的近等质量、Λ~≳300 及更高光度距离与多信使结果一致。
既往联合约束中子星物态方程与质量分布多依赖分层/群体推断,如 Wysocki+ 2020 和 Golomb+ 2025,但对单事件应变数据的高维采样代价高昂;Magnall+ 2025 虽已把状态方程信息写入先验,却主要建模 Λ~ 对啁啾质量的条件分布。本文用归一化流训练质量与潮汐形变的联合先验,首次覆盖 BNS 与 NSBH 两类源并支持单事件贝叶斯模型选择,在 GW170817/GW190425/GW230529 上得到合理分类和更窄参数。未来可扩展到多信使联合推断、纳入更多物态方程与群体模型,并以模拟研究评估对状态方程约束的改善,使框架随观测积累持续更新。
预印本 2025-11-28 · 刊出 2026-08-03 · 收录 2026-08-20