Information Geometry of Imaging Operators

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Wood, Charles
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Wood, Charles
author_facet Wood, Charles
contents Imaging systems are represented as linear operators, and their singular value spectra describe the structure recoverable at the operator level. Building on an operator-based information-theoretic framework, this paper introduces a minimal geometric structure induced by the normalised singular spectra of imaging operators. By identifying spectral equivalence classes with points on a probability simplex, and equipping this space with the Fisher--Rao information metric, a well-defined Riemannian geometry can be obtained that is invariant under unitary transformations and global rescaling. The resulting geometry admits closed-form expressions for distances and geodesics, and has constant positive curvature. Under explicit restrictions, composition enforces boundary faces through rank constraints and, in an aligned model with stated idealisations, induces a non-linear re-weighting of spectral states. Fisher--Rao distances are preserved only in the spectrally uniform case. The construction is abstract and operator-level, introducing no optimisation principles, stochastic models, or modality-specific assumptions. It is intended to provide a fixed geometric background for subsequent analysis of information flow and constraints in imaging pipelines.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_02111
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Information Geometry of Imaging Operators
Wood, Charles
Information Theory
Imaging systems are represented as linear operators, and their singular value spectra describe the structure recoverable at the operator level. Building on an operator-based information-theoretic framework, this paper introduces a minimal geometric structure induced by the normalised singular spectra of imaging operators. By identifying spectral equivalence classes with points on a probability simplex, and equipping this space with the Fisher--Rao information metric, a well-defined Riemannian geometry can be obtained that is invariant under unitary transformations and global rescaling. The resulting geometry admits closed-form expressions for distances and geodesics, and has constant positive curvature. Under explicit restrictions, composition enforces boundary faces through rank constraints and, in an aligned model with stated idealisations, induces a non-linear re-weighting of spectral states. Fisher--Rao distances are preserved only in the spectrally uniform case. The construction is abstract and operator-level, introducing no optimisation principles, stochastic models, or modality-specific assumptions. It is intended to provide a fixed geometric background for subsequent analysis of information flow and constraints in imaging pipelines.
title Information Geometry of Imaging Operators
topic Information Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.02111