103,524 research outputs found
Detection of point sources on two-dimensional images based on peaks
This article considers the detection of point sources in two dimensional
astronomical images. The detection scheme we propose is based on peak
statistics. We discuss the example of the detection of far galaxies in Cosmic
Microwave Background experiments throughout the paper, although the method we
present is totally general and can be used in many other fields of data
analysis. We assume sources with a Gaussian profile --that is a fair
approximation of the profile of a point source convolved with the detector beam
in microwave experiments-- on a background modeled by a homogeneous and
isotropic Gaussian random field characterized by a scale-free power spectrum.
Point sources are enhanced with respect to the background by means of linear
filters. After filtering, we identify local maxima and apply our detection
scheme, a Neyman-Pearson detector that defines our region of acceptance based
on the a priori pdf of the sources and the ratio of number densities. We study
the different performances of some linear filters that have been used in this
context in the literature: the Mexican Hat wavelet, the matched filter and the
scale-adaptive filter. We consider as well an extension to two dimensions of
the biparametric scale adaptive filter (BSAF). The BSAF depends on two
parameters which are determined by maximizing the number density of real
detections while fixing the number density of spurious detections. For our
detection criterion the BSAF outperforms the other filters in the interesting
case of white noise.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures, version accepted for publication on EURASIP
Journal on Applied Signal Processing: Applications of Signal Processing in
Astrophysics and Cosmolog
The correct estimate of the probability of false detection of the matched filter in the detection of weak signals. II. (Further results with application to a set of ALMA and ATCA data)
The matched filter (MF) is one of the most popular and reliable techniques to
the detect signals of known structure and amplitude smaller than the level of
the contaminating noise. Under the assumption of stationary Gaussian noise, MF
maximizes the probability of detection subject to a constant probability of
false detection or false alarm (PFA). This property relies upon a priori
knowledge of the position of the searched signals, which is usually not
available. Recently, it has been shown that when applied in its standard form,
MF may severely underestimate the PFA. As a consequence the statistical
significance of features that belong to noise is overestimated and the
resulting detections are actually spurious. For this reason, an alternative
method of computing the PFA has been proposed that is based on the probability
density function (PDF) of the peaks of an isotropic Gaussian random field. In
this paper we further develop this method. In particular, we discuss the
statistical meaning of the PFA and show that, although useful as a preliminary
step in a detection procedure, it is not able to quantify the actual
reliability of a specific detection. For this reason, a new quantity is
introduced called the specific probability of false alarm (SPFA), which is able
to carry out this computation. We show how this method works in targeted
simulations and apply it to a few interferometric maps taken with the Atacama
Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Australia Telescope Compact
Array (ATCA). We select a few potential new point sources and assign an
accurate detection reliability to these sources.Comment: 28 pages, 20 figures, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Minor changes and
some typos correcte
A Bayesian approach to filter design: detection of compact sources
We consider filters for the detection and extraction of compact sources on a
background. We make a one-dimensional treatment (though a generalization to two
or more dimensions is possible) assuming that the sources have a Gaussian
profile whereas the background is modeled by an homogeneous and isotropic
Gaussian random field, characterized by a scale-free power spectrum. Local peak
detection is used after filtering. Then, a Bayesian Generalized Neyman-Pearson
test is used to define the region of acceptance that includes not only the
amplification but also the curvature of the sources and the a priori
probability distribution function of the sources. We search for an optimal
filter between a family of Matched-type filters (MTF) modifying the filtering
scale such that it gives the maximum number of real detections once fixed the
number density of spurious sources. We have performed numerical simulations to
test theoretical ideas.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. SPIE Proceedings "Electronic Imaging II", San
Jose, CA. January 200
X-ray Astronomical Point Sources Recognition Using Granular Binary-tree SVM
The study on point sources in astronomical images is of special importance,
since most energetic celestial objects in the Universe exhibit a point-like
appearance. An approach to recognize the point sources (PS) in the X-ray
astronomical images using our newly designed granular binary-tree support
vector machine (GBT-SVM) classifier is proposed. First, all potential point
sources are located by peak detection on the image. The image and spectral
features of these potential point sources are then extracted. Finally, a
classifier to recognize the true point sources is build through the extracted
features. Experiments and applications of our approach on real X-ray
astronomical images are demonstrated. comparisons between our approach and
other SVM-based classifiers are also carried out by evaluating the precision
and recall rates, which prove that our approach is better and achieves a higher
accuracy of around 89%.Comment: Accepted by ICSP201
A two-dimensional Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for crowded field source detection: ROSAT sources in NGC 6397
We present a two-dimensional version of the classical one-dimensional
Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test, extending an earlier idea due to Peacock (1983)
and an implementation proposed by Fasano & Franceschini (1987). The
two-dimensional K-S test is used to optimise the goodness of fit in an
iterative source-detection scheme for astronomical images. The method is
applied to a ROSAT/HRI x-ray image of the post core-collapse globular cluster
NGC 6397 to determine the most probable source distribution in the cluster
core. Comparisons to other widely-used source detection methods, and to a
Chandra image of the same field, show that our iteration scheme is superior in
measuring statistics-limited sources in severely crowded fields.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 6 tables. Accepted by MNRA
A multi-scale, multi-wavelength source extraction method: getsources
We present a multi-scale, multi-wavelength source extraction algorithm called
getsources. Although it has been designed primarily for use in the far-infrared
surveys of Galactic star-forming regions with Herschel, the method can be
applied to many other astronomical images. Instead of the traditional approach
of extracting sources in the observed images, the new method analyzes fine
spatial decompositions of original images across a wide range of scales and
across all wavebands. It cleans those single-scale images of noise and
background, and constructs wavelength-independent single-scale detection images
that preserve information in both spatial and wavelength dimensions. Sources
are detected in the combined detection images by following the evolution of
their segmentation masks across all spatial scales. Measurements of the source
properties are done in the original background-subtracted images at each
wavelength; the background is estimated by interpolation under the source
footprints and overlapping sources are deblended in an iterative procedure. In
addition to the main catalog of sources, various catalogs and images are
produced that aid scientific exploitation of the extraction results. We
illustrate the performance of getsources on Herschel images by extracting
sources in sub-fields of the Aquila and Rosette star-forming regions. The
source extraction code and validation images with a reference extraction
catalog are freely available.Comment: 31 pages, 27 figures, to be published in Astronomy & Astrophysic
Plausible fluorescent Ly-alpha emitters around the z=3.1 QSO0420-388
We report the results of a survey for fluorescent Ly-alpha emission carried
out in the field surrounding the z=3.1 quasar QSO0420-388 using the FORS2
instrument on the VLT. We first review the properties expected for fluorescent
Ly-alpha emitters, compared with those of other non-fluorescent Ly-alpha
emitters. Our observational search detected 13 Ly-alpha sources sparsely
sampling a volume of ~14000 comoving Mpc^3 around the quasar. The properties of
these in terms of i) the line equivalent width, ii) the line profile and iii)
the value of the surface brightness related to the distance from the quasar,
all suggest that several of these may be plausibly fluorescent. Moreover, their
number is in good agreement with the expectation from theoretical models. One
of the best candidates for fluorescence is sufficiently far behind QSO0420-388
that it would imply that the quasar has been active for (at least) ~60 Myrs.
Further studies on such objects will give information about proto-galactic
clouds and on the radiative history (and beaming) of the high-redshift quasars.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures.Update to match the version published on ApJ 657,
135, 2007 March
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