Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Fast surrogate models for expensive simulations are now essential across the sciences, yet they typically operate as black boxes. We present \texttt{GWAgent}, a large language model (LLM)-based workflow that constructs interpretable analytic surrogates directly from simulation data. Surrogate modeling is well suited to agentic workflows because candidate models can be quantitatively validated against ground-truth simulations at each iteration. As a demonstration, we build a surrogate for gravitational waveforms from eccentric binary black hole mergers. We show that providing the agent with a physics-informed domain ansatz substantially improves output model accuracy. The resulting analytic surrogate attains a median Advanced LIGO mismatch of $6.9\times10^{-4}$ together with an $\sim 8.4\times$ speedup in waveform evaluation, surpassing both symbolic regression and conventional machine learning baselines. Beyond producing an accurate model, the workflow identifies compact physical structure from the learned representation. As an astrophysical application, we use \texttt{GWAgent} to analyze the eccentricity of GW200129 and infer $e_{20\mathrm{Hz}}=0.099^{+0.063}_{-0.044}$. These results show that validation-constrained agentic workflows can produce accurate, fast, and interpretable surrogates for scientific simulations and inference.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Institutions: University of California, Santa Barbara, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, The University of Texas at Austin, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study, Chennai Mathematical Institute, University of Chicago, Weizmann Institute of Science
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1110399006, G1141670404, G2232042528, G2760720504, Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at UCSB, G3349485200, G3400352658, G401861217, G4281768896, G5356677024, G6282714480, Postdoctoral Fellows Support at KITP, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, MRI: Acquisition of a High Performance Central Computing Facility at University of California Santa Barbara
OpenAlex ID: W7160981551