Starduster: A multi-wavelength SED model based on radiative transfer simulations and deep learning

TL;DR

Starduster is a deep learning model that accurately predicts galaxy spectral energy distributions across multiple wavelengths by emulating dust radiative transfer simulations, enabling efficient analysis of galaxy properties.

Contribution

The paper introduces Starduster, a novel neural network-based model that emulates dust radiative transfer simulations for galaxy SED prediction, improving efficiency and accuracy over traditional methods.

Findings

Achieves ~0.005 mag error in dust attenuation prediction

Achieves ~0.1-0.2 mag error in dust emission prediction

Successfully fits observed galaxy SEDs and estimates physical parameters

Abstract

We present Starduster, a supervised deep learning model that predicts the multi-wavelength SED from galaxy geometry parameters and star formation history by emulating dust radiative transfer simulations. The model is comprised of three specifically designed neural networks, which take into account the features of dust attenuation and emission. We utilise the Skirt radiative transfer simulation to produce data for the training data of neural networks. Each neural network can be trained using ~ 4000 - 5000 samples. Compared with the direct results of the Skirt simulation, our deep learning model produces ~ 0.005 mag and ~ 0.1 - 0.2 mag errors for dust attenuation and emission respectively. As an application, we fit our model to the observed SEDs of IC4225 and NGC5166. Our model can reproduce the observations, and provide reasonable measurements of the inclination angle and stellar mass. However, some predicted geometry parameters are different from an image-fitting study. Our analysis implies that including a constraint at (rest-frame) ~ 40 micron could alleviate the degeneracy in the parameter space for both IC4225 and NGC5166, leading to broadly consistent results with the image-fitting predictions. Our SED code is publicly available and can be applied to both SED-fitting and SED-modelling of galaxies from semi-analytic models.