# Genetic-algorithm-optimized neural networks for gravitational wave classification

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.04340 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.04340/

## Key facts

- Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 9 Oct 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [Multi-Objective Hyperparameter Optimization in Machine Learning -- An Overview](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.07438/) (2022)
- [Advances in Machine and Deep Learning for Modeling and Real-time Detection of Multi-Messenger Sources](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.06479/) (2021)
- [Interpretable AI forecasting for numerical relativity waveforms of quasi-circular, spinning, non-precessing binary black hole mergers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.06968/) (2021)
- [Inference-optimized AI and high performance computing for gravitational wave detection at scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11133/) (2022)
- [AI and extreme scale computing to learn and infer the physics of higher order gravitational wave modes of quasi-circular, spinning, non-precessing binary black hole mergers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.07669/) (2021)
- [Development of a Multiprocessing Interface Genetic Algorithm for Optimising a Multilayer Perceptron for Disease Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.15694/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Gravitational-wave detection strategies are based on a signal analysis technique known as matched filtering. Despite the success of matched filtering, due to its computational cost, there has been recent interest in developing deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for signal detection. Designing these networks remains a challenge as most procedures adopt a trial and error strategy to set the hyperparameter values. We propose a new method for hyperparameter optimization based on genetic algorithms (GAs). We compare six different GA variants and explore different choices for the GA-optimized fitness score. We show that the GA can discover high-quality architectures when the initial hyperparameter seed values are far from a good solution as well as refining already good networks. For example, when starting from the architecture proposed by George and Huerta, the network optimized over the 20-dimensional hyperparameter space has 78% fewer trainable parameters while obtaining an 11% increase in accuracy for our test problem. Using genetic algorithm optimization to refine an existing network should be especially useful if the problem context (e.g. statistical properties of the noise, signal model, etc) changes and one needs to rebuild a network. In all of our experiments, we find the GA discovers significantly less complicated networks as compared to the seed network, suggesting it can be used to prune wasteful network structures. While we have restricted our attention to CNN classifiers, our GA hyperparameter optimization strategy can be applied within other machine learning settings.