MLody—Deep Learning–generated Polarized Synchrotron Coefficients

Abstract

Polarized synchrotron emission is a fundamental process in high-energy astrophysics, particularly in the environments around black holes and pulsars. Accurate modeling of this emission requires precise computation of the emission, absorption, rotation, and conversion coefficients, which are critical for radiative transfer simulations. Traditionally, these coefficients are derived using fit functions based on precomputed ground truth values. However, these fit functions often lack accuracy, particularly in specific plasma conditions not well represented in the data sets used to generate them. In this work, we introduce MLody, a deep neural network designed to compute polarized synchrotron coefficients with high accuracy across a wide range of plasma parameters. We demonstrate MLody's capabilities by integrating it with a radiative transfer code to generate synthetic polarized synchrotron images for an accreting black hole simulation. Our results reveal significant differences, up to a factor of 2, in both linear and circular polarization compared to traditional methods. These differences could have important implications for parameter estimation in Event Horizon Telescope observations, suggesting that MLody could enhance the accuracy of future astrophysical analyses.