Learning Inspiral-Merger-Ringdown Waveforms from a Post-Newtonian Baseline

Abstract

Modeling the full inspiral-merger-ringdown signal requires combining analytically controlled inspiral physics with the nonlinear strong-field information supplied by numerical relativity. We represent the numerical relativity contribution beyond an analytic inspiral waveform as residual amplitude and phase corrections. Retaining the leading-order frequency-domain amplitude and the $3.5$ Post-Newtonian TaylorF2 phase, we use a Kolmogorov-Arnold network to learn these residual corrections from SXS waveforms. After training, the learned corrections are stored as explicit spline functions, so waveform evaluation no longer requires the network itself. On $75$ simulations excluded from training and model selection, the model achieves a median flat-noise mismatch of $2.7\times10^{-5}$. Our results demonstrate a machine learning driven waveform modeling strategy in which numerical relativity augments, rather than replaces, analytically known waveform structure.