AspGap: Augmented Stellar Parameters and Abundances for 23 million RGB stars from Gaia XP low-resolution spectra

TL;DR

AspGap is a neural-network model that accurately infers stellar parameters, including [$ extalpha$/M], from Gaia XP spectra, enabling detailed chemo-dynamical studies of 23 million giant stars.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hallucinator component in neural networks to improve stellar label predictions from low-resolution spectra, especially [$ extalpha$/M], validated with external data.

Findings

Achieves ~1% accuracy in Teff for giants

Predicts [$ extalpha$/M] with 0.03 dex accuracy

Provides stellar parameters for 23 million Gaia giants

Abstract

We present AspGap, a new approach to infer stellar labels from low-resolution Gaia XP spectra, including precise [$\alpha$/M] estimates for the first time. AspGap is a neural-network based regression model trained on APOGEE spectra. In the training step, AspGap learns to use XP spectra not only to predict stellar labels but also the high-resolution APOGEE spectra that lead to the same stellar labels. The inclusion of this last model component -- dubbed the hallucinator -- creates a more physically motivated mapping and significantly improves the prediction of stellar labels in the validation, particularly of [$\alpha$/M]. For giant stars, we find cross-validated rms accuracies for Teff, log g, [M/H], [$\alpha$/M] of ~1%, 0.12 dex, 0.07 dex, 0.03 dex, respectively. We also validate our labels through comparison with external datasets and through a range of astrophysical tests that demonstrate that we are indeed determining [$\alpha$/M] from the XP spectra, rather than just inferring it indirectly from correlations with other labels. We publicly release the AspGap codebase, along with our stellar parameter catalog for all giants observed by Gaia XP. AspGap enables new insights into the formation and chemo-dynamics of our Galaxy by providing precise [$\alpha$/M] estimates for 23 million giant stars, including 12 million with radial velocities from Gaia.