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Leveraging differentiable programming in the inverse problem of neutron stars

Year: 2025
Type: preprint
Abstract: Neutron stars (NSs) probe the high-density regime of the nuclear equation of state (EOS). However, inferring the EOS from observations of NSs is a computationally challenging task. In this work, we efficiently solve this inverse problem by leveraging differential programming in two ways. First, we enable full Bayesian inference in under one hour of wall time on a GPU by using gradient-based samplers, without requiring pre-trained machine learning emulators. Moreover, we demonstrate efficient scaling to high-dimensional parameter spaces. Second, we introduce a novel gradient-based optimization scheme that recovers the EOS of a given NS mass-radius curve. We demonstrate how our framework can reveal consistencies or tensions between nuclear physics and astrophysics. First, we show how the breakdown density of a metamodel description of the EOS can be determined from NS observations. Second, we demonstrate how degeneracies in EOS modeling using nuclear empirical parameters can influence the inverse problem during gradient-based optimization. Looking ahead, our approach opens up new theoretical studies of the relation between NS properties and the EOS, while effectively tackling the data analysis challenges brought by future detectors.
Authors: Wouters, Thibeau, Pang, Peter T. H., Koehn, Hauke, Rose, Henrik, Somasundaram, Rahul, Tews, Ingo, Dietrich, Tim, Broeck, Chris Van Den
Institutions: Utrecht University, National Institute for Subatomic Physics, University of Potsdam, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Syracuse University, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics
Language: English
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, European Commission, Daimler und Benz Stiftung, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Office of Science, National Nuclear Security Administration, Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Nuclear Physics, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Awards: G1017065088, The Operation and Maintenance of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), G1279347439, G1417596380, G1527848044, G1849164878, The Construction of the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (AdvLIGO), G604949671, G6410514744, G6563880843, G6833753177, G70659677, G7259778263, G7727384450, Probing the phase diagram of quantum chromodynamics
OpenAlex ID: W6979256248
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