Explainable autoencoder for neutron star dense matter parameter estimation

Abstract We present a physics-informed autoencoder (AE) designed to encode the equation of state of neutron stars into an interpretable latent space. In particular the input will be encoded in the mass, radius, and tidal deformability values of a neutron star. Unlike traditional black-box models, our approach incorporates additional loss functions to enforce explainability in the encoded representations. This method enhances the transparency of machine learning models in physics, providing a robust proof-of-concept tool to study compact stars data. Our results demonstrate that the proposed AE not only accurately estimates the equation of state parameters and central density/pressure but also offers insights into the physical connection between equation of state and observable physical quantities. This framework conceptualizes the physical differential equations themselves as the ‘encoders’, allowing interpretability of the latent space.