Deep learning the astrometric signature of dark matter substructure

Kyriakos Vattis, Michael W. Toomey, Savvas M. Koushiappas

Published 2020-08-26Version 1

We study the application of machine learning techniques for the detection of the astrometric signature of dark matter substructure. In this proof of principle a population of dark matter subhalos in the Milky Way will act as lenses for sources of extragalactic origin such as quasars. We train ResNet-18, a state-of-the-art convolutional neural network to classify angular velocity maps of a population of quasars into lensed and no lensed classes. We show that an SKA -like survey with extended operational baseline can be used to probe the substructure content of the Milky Way.