New-generation Maximum Entropy Method (ngMEM): a Lagrangian-based algorithm for dynamic reconstruction of interferometric data

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Mus, A., Martí-Vidal, I.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866911760437477376
author Mus, A.
Martí-Vidal, I.
author_facet Mus, A.
Martí-Vidal, I.
contents Imaging interferometric data in radio astronomy requires the use of non-linear algorithms that rely on different assumptions on the source structure and may produce non-unique results. This is especially true for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations, where the sampling of Fourier space is very sparse. A basic tenet in standard VLBI imaging techniques is to assume that the observed source structure does not evolve during the observation. However, the recent VLBI results of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at our Galactic Center (Sagittarius A$^*$, SgrA*), recently reported by the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration (EHTC), require the development of dynamic imaging algorithms, since it exhibits variability at minute timescales. In this paper, we introduce a new non-convex optimization problem that extends the standard Maximum Entropy Method (MEM), for reconstructing intra-observation dynamical images from interferometric data that evolves in every integration time. We present a rigorous mathematical formalism to solve the problem via the primal-dual approach. We build a Newton strategy and we give its numerical complexity. We also give a strategy to iteratively improve the obtained solution and finally, we define a novel figure of merit to evaluate the quality of the recovered solution. Then, we test the algorithm, called ngMEM, in different synthetic datasets, with increasing difficulty. Finally, we compare it with another well-established dynamical imaging method. Within this comparison we identified a significant improvement of the ngMEM reconstructions. Moreover, the evaluation of the integration time evolution scheme and the time contribution showed to play a crucial role for obtaining good dynamic reconstructions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2401_10177
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle New-generation Maximum Entropy Method (ngMEM): a Lagrangian-based algorithm for dynamic reconstruction of interferometric data
Mus, A.
Martí-Vidal, I.
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Imaging interferometric data in radio astronomy requires the use of non-linear algorithms that rely on different assumptions on the source structure and may produce non-unique results. This is especially true for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations, where the sampling of Fourier space is very sparse. A basic tenet in standard VLBI imaging techniques is to assume that the observed source structure does not evolve during the observation. However, the recent VLBI results of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at our Galactic Center (Sagittarius A$^*$, SgrA*), recently reported by the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration (EHTC), require the development of dynamic imaging algorithms, since it exhibits variability at minute timescales. In this paper, we introduce a new non-convex optimization problem that extends the standard Maximum Entropy Method (MEM), for reconstructing intra-observation dynamical images from interferometric data that evolves in every integration time. We present a rigorous mathematical formalism to solve the problem via the primal-dual approach. We build a Newton strategy and we give its numerical complexity. We also give a strategy to iteratively improve the obtained solution and finally, we define a novel figure of merit to evaluate the quality of the recovered solution. Then, we test the algorithm, called ngMEM, in different synthetic datasets, with increasing difficulty. Finally, we compare it with another well-established dynamical imaging method. Within this comparison we identified a significant improvement of the ngMEM reconstructions. Moreover, the evaluation of the integration time evolution scheme and the time contribution showed to play a crucial role for obtaining good dynamic reconstructions.
title New-generation Maximum Entropy Method (ngMEM): a Lagrangian-based algorithm for dynamic reconstruction of interferometric data
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.10177