A Covariance-Aware Framework for Spatially Resolved Exoplanet Biosignature Inference with the Solar Gravitational Lens
Abstract
Assessing possible life on an exoplanet requires spatial, spectral, temporal, and environmental context. We develop a covariance-aware Solar Gravitational Lens (SGL) framework for regional biosignature inference from reconstructed Einstein-ring measurements. A controlled 0.45-2.40 um Stokes-I experiment uses ten illuminated cells, 128 channels, and R=70 to compare resolved and exactly projected disk spectra with common parameters and priors. Across 96 synthetic scenes, the joint gas, vegetation, and mineral block gains (1.52+/-0.03) nats after marginalizing cloud and calibration/response parameters; adding independently trained surrogate-discrepancy covariance gives (1.49+/-0.03) nats. Held-out mismatch nevertheless produces linearized shifts up to 6.08 posterior standard deviations; preserved precision does not establish unbiased recovery or evidence for life. For fixed Gaussian hypotheses, the expected log-likelihood-ratio loss under disk integration equals half the squared whitened contrast discarded by the projection. A separate 0.40-20 um continuum calculation provides absolute photon rates and observing-time estimates for an Earth-radius planet at 30 pc, observed from 650 AU. It includes source-averaged SGL amplification, finite-aperture extraction, coronal and host-star photons, detector noise, and a declared calibration floor. A reconstruction-covariance bracket reduces an 8 x 8 coadd gain from 7.77 to 3.00, costing 6.7 times the exposure in the statistical-noise limit. The framework connects regional spectroscopy and co-location tests to the physical and instrumental validation needed to assess exoplanet biospheres and possible biological activity.
Related
- Accurate pulsar timing array likelihoods: better low-rank covariance for gravitational wave background
- The WDM time-frequency transform in gravitational-wave data analysis II: Evolutionary spectrum and noise covariance
- BeAR: The Bern Atmospheric Retrieval code - A GPU-accelerated framework for low-resolution, high-resolution, and joint retrievals of exoplanet atmospheres
- Assessing cell survival and biosignature preservation of the extremely thermoacidophilic archaeon Acidianus manzaensis after exposure to Mars-like conditions
- Scale-Vector Alignment: A Scale-Aware Framework for Spatially Resolved Morphological Similarity in Astronomical Images
BibTeX
@misc{turyshev2026covarianceaware,
title = {{A Covariance-Aware Framework for Spatially Resolved Exoplanet Biosignature Inference with the Solar Gravitational Lens}},
author = {Slava G. Turyshev},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2606.29138},
eprint = {2606.29138},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.29138},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A Covariance-Aware Framework for Spatially Resolved Exoplanet Biosignature Inference with the Solar Gravitational Lens
AU - Slava G. Turyshev
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/24
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2606.29138
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.29138
AB - Assessing possible life on an exoplanet requires spatial, spectral, temporal, and environmental context. We develop a covariance-aware Solar Gravitational Lens (SGL) framework for regional biosignature inference from reconstructed Einstein-ring measurements. A controlled 0.45-2.40 um Stokes-I experiment uses ten illuminated cells, 128 channels, and R=70 to compare resolved and exactly projected disk spectra with common parameters and priors. Across 96 synthetic scenes, the joint gas, vegetation, and mineral block gains (1.52+/-0.03) nats after marginalizing cloud and calibration/response parameters; adding independently trained surrogate-discrepancy covariance gives (1.49+/-0.03) nats. Held-out mismatch nevertheless produces linearized shifts up to 6.08 posterior standard deviations; preserved precision does not establish unbiased recovery or evidence for life. For fixed Gaussian hypotheses, the expected log-likelihood-ratio loss under disk integration equals half the squared whitened contrast discarded by the projection. A separate 0.40-20 um continuum calculation provides absolute photon rates and observing-time estimates for an Earth-radius planet at 30 pc, observed from 650 AU. It includes source-averaged SGL amplification, finite-aperture extraction, coronal and host-star photons, detector noise, and a declared calibration floor. A reconstruction-covariance bracket reduces an 8 x 8 coadd gain from 7.77 to 3.00, costing 6.7 times the exposure in the statistical-noise limit. The framework connects regional spectroscopy and co-location tests to the physical and instrumental validation needed to assess exoplanet biospheres and possible biological activity.
ER -