The Payne applied to the APOGEE DR14 data set

The Payne combines a number of important methodological aspects: it exploits the information from much of the available spectral range; it fits all labels (stellar parameters and elemental abundances) simultaneously; it uses spectral models, where the structure of the atmosphere and the radiative transport are consistently calculated to reflect the stellar labels.

At its core The Payne has an approach to accurate and precise interpolation and prediction of the spectrum in high-dimensional label space that is flexible and robust, yet based on only a moderate number of ab initio models (O (1000) for 25 labels). With a simple neural-net-like functional form and a suitable choice of training labels, this interpolation yields a spectral flux prediction good to 10^-3^rms across a wide range of T_eff_ and logg (including dwarfs and giants).