http://arxiv.org/abs/1606.07442
We apply deep recurrent neural networks, which are capable of learning complex sequential information, to classify supernovae. The observational time and filter fluxes are used as inputs to the network, but since the inputs are agnostic additional data such as host galaxy information can also be included. Using the Supernovae Photometric Classification Challenge (SPCC) data, we find that deep networks are capable of learning about light curves, however the performance of the network is highly sensitive to the amount of training data. For a training size of 50% of the representational SPCC dataset (around 104 supernovae) we obtain a type Ia vs non type Ia classification accuracy of 94.8%, an area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve AUC of 0.986 and a SPCC figure-of-merit F1 = 0.64. We also apply a pre-trained model to obtain classification probabilities as a function of time, and show it can give early indications of supernovae type. Our method is competitive with existing algorithms and has applications for future large-scale photometric surveys.
T. Charnock and A. Moss
Mon, 27 Jun 16
27/43
Comments: 6 pages, 3 figures