Variational Image Feature Extraction for the Event Horizon Telescope
Open accessAbstract
Imaging algorithms form powerful analysis tools for very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) data analysis. However, these tools cannot measure certain image features (e.g., ring diameter) by their nonparametric nature. This is unfortunate since these image features are often related to astrophysically relevant quantities such as black hole mass. This paper details a new general image feature-extraction technique that applies to a wide variety of VLBI image reconstructions called variational image domain analysis . Unlike previous tools, variational image domain analysis can be applied to any image reconstruction regardless of its structure. To demonstrate its flexibility, we analyze thousands of reconstructions from previous Event Horizon Telescope synthetic data sets and recover image features such as diameter, orientation, and ellipticity. By measuring these features, our technique can help extract astrophysically relevant quantities such as the mass and orientation of the central black hole in M87.
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An independent cross-validation of both IDFE tools (REx and VIDA) has been carried out in P. Tiede et al. (2022, in preparation).
“An independent cross-validation of both IDFE tools has been carried out in P. Tiede et al. ( 2022, in preparation ) .”
From First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. IV. Variability, Morphology, and Black Hole Mass (2022) · cites this paper as P. Tiede et al. (2022, in preparation)
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“VIDA Variational Image-Domain Analysis (VIDA; P. Tiede et al. 2022, in preparation) is an IDFE tool for quantifying the parameters describing a specifiable image morphology; it is written in Julia (Bezanson et al. 2017) and contained in the package VIDA.jl.154 VIDA employs a template-matching…”
MethodSelf-citation
- Authors
- Tiede, P., Broderick, A. E., & Palumbo, D. C. M.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- University of Waterloo (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Tiede, Paul
- Venue
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Publisher
- American Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2022-01-31
- Volume
- 925
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 122
- ISSN
- 0004-637X (ISSN-L)
- 1538-4357
- OpenAlex
- W4210637903
- Cited by
- 29
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 2.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The Astrophysical Journal (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (AST-1716536, AST-1440254, AST-1935980)
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF-5278)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
- Keywords
- image feature extraction, Event Horizon Telescope, very long baseline interferometry, black hole imaging, M87, black hole mass, ring diameter, ring orientation, image reconstruction
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