A Bayesian approach to discrete object detection in astronomical datasets

Abstract

A Bayesian approach is presented for detecting and characterising the signal from discrete objects embedded in a diffuse background. The approach centres around the evaluation of the posterior distribution for the parameters of the discrete objects, given the observed data, and defines the theoretically-optimal procedure for parametrised object detection. Two alternative strategies are investigated: the simultaneous detection of all the discrete objects in the dataset, and the iterative detection of objects. In both cases, the parameter space characterising the object(s) is explored using Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo sampling. For the iterative detection of objects, another approach is to locate the global maximum of the posterior at each iteration using a simulated annealing downhill simplex algorithm. The techniques are applied to a two-dimensional toy problem consisting of Gaussian objects embedded in uncorrelated pixel noise. A cosmological illustration of the iterative approach is also presented, in which the thermal and kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects from clusters of galaxies are detected in microwave maps dominated by emission from primordial cosmic microwave background anisotropies.

20 pages, 12 figures, accepted by MNRAS; contains some additional material in response to referee's comments

References in corpus (9)

• II: Bayesian Methods for Cosmological Parameter Estimation from Cosmic Microwave Background Measurements
• Filtering techniques for the detection of Sunyaev-Zel'dovich clusters in multifrequency CMB maps
• The Age of the Universe and the Cosmological Constant Determined from Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy Measurements
• All-sky component separation for the Planck mission
• Optimal detection of sources on a homogeneous and isotropic background
• Scale-Adaptive filters for the detection/separation of compact sources
• The Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect: simulation and observation
• A Bayesian non-parametric method to detect clusters in Planck data
• An adaptive filter for the PLANCK Compact Source Catalogue construction

Cited by in corpus (70)

• MultiNest: an efficient and robust Bayesian inference tool for cosmology and particle physics
• Multimodal nested sampling: an efficient and robust alternative to MCMC methods for astronomical data analysis
• Quantifying the Uncertainty in the Orbits of Extrasolar Planets
• Applications of Bayesian model selection to cosmological parameters
• Planck Early Results. VII. The Early Release Compact Source Catalog
• Catalog Extraction in SZ Cluster Surveys: a matched filter approach
• Evidence for a clumpy, rotating gas disk in a submillimeter galaxy at z=4
• A Cosmic Microwave Background feature consistent with a cosmic texture
• Bayesian reconstruction of the cosmological large-scale structure: methodology, inverse algorithms and numerical optimization
• Top ten accelerating cosmological models
• Detecting extrasolar planets from stellar radial velocities using Bayesian evidence
• Bayesian methods of astronomical source extraction
• A fast Bayesian approach to discrete object detection in astronomical datasets - PowellSnakes I
• The X-Ray Derived Cosmological Star Formation History and the Galaxy X-Ray Luminosity Functions in the Chandra Deep Fields North and South
• The CMB cold spot: texture, cluster or void?
• Bayesian model selection and isocurvature perturbations
• Bayesian analysis of radial velocity data of GJ667C with correlated noise: evidence for only 2 planets
• Assessing the effects of foregrounds and sky removal in WMAP
• AMORPH: A statistical program for characterizing amorphous materials by X-ray diffraction
• Point Source Detection using the Spherical Mexican Hat Wavelet on simulated all-sky Planck maps
• Bayesian model selection without evidences: application to the dark energy equation-of-state
• Comparison of filters for the detection of point sources in Planck simulations
• The Santa Fe Light Cone Simulation Project: I. Confusion and the WHIM in Upcoming Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect Surveys
• First Observational Tests of Eternal Inflation: Analysis Methods and WMAP 7-Year Results
• Bayesian analysis of Friedmannless cosmologies
• Forecasting the Bayes factor of a future observation
• AIC, BIC, Bayesian evidence against the interacting dark energy model
• Cosmological parameter estimation and Bayesian model comparison using VSA data
• Bayesian modelling of clusters of galaxies from multi-frequency pointed Sunyaev--Zel'dovich observations
• WMAP 3-year primordial power spectrum
• Markov Chain Monte Carlo joint analysis of Chandra X-ray imaging spectroscopy and Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect data
• Gamma-ray bursts as cosmological probes: LambdaCDM vs. conformal gravity
• Powellsnakes II: a fast Bayesian approach to discrete object detection in multi-frequency astronomical data sets
• Probabilistic Catalogs for Crowded Stellar Fields
• Detecting Sunyaev-Zel'dovich clusters with PLANCK: I. Construction of all-sky thermal and kinetic SZ-maps
• Background-Source Separation in astronomical images with Bayesian probability theory (I): the method
• Polarization of the WMAP Point Sources
• Matrix Filters for the Detection of Extragalactic Point Sources in Cosmic Microwave Background Images
• New insight on galaxy structure from GALPHAT I. Motivation, methodology, and benchmarks for Sersic models
• Optimal Image Reconstruction in Radio Interferometry
• A novel multi-frequency technique for the detection of point sources in Cosmic Microwave Background maps
• Improved Point Source Detection in Crowded Fields using Probabilistic Cataloging
• Studying clusters with Planck
• Detecting Sunyaev-Zel'dovich clusters with PLANCK: III. Properties of the expected SZ-cluster sample
• Bayesian Model Averaging in Astrophysics: A Review
• Hierarchical Bayesian Detection Algorithm for Early-Universe Relics in the Cosmic Microwave Background
• Physical component analysis of galaxy cluster weak gravitational lensing data
• Foreground separation using a flexible maximum-entropy algorithm: an application to COBE data
• Extracting the Dark Matter Profile of a Relaxed Galaxy Cluster
• The estimation of the SZ effects with unbiased multifilters
• Detection/estimation of the modulus of a vector. Application to point source detection in polarization data
• Bayesian constraints on dark matter halo properties using gravitationally-lensed supernovae
• Weak lensing by triaxial galaxy clusters
• Evidence for Substructure in Ursa Minor Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy using a Bayesian Object Detection Method
• Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Cluster Survey Simulations for Planck
• A Bayesian technique for the detection of point sources in CMB maps
• Statistical properties of SZ and X-ray cluster detections
• A multifrequency method based on the Matched Multifilter for the detection of point sources in CMB maps
• Measurement of Galaxy Cluster Integrated Comptonization and Mass Scaling Relations with the South Pole Telescope
• Probing local non-Gaussianities within a Bayesian framework
• Effect of component separation on the temperature distribution of the CMB
• Background Subtraction Uncertainty from Submillimetre to Millimetre Wavelengths
• Separating the kinetic SZ effect from primary CMB fluctuations
• Sparse point-source removal for full-sky CMB experiments: application to WMAP 9-year data
• Compact source detection in multi-channel microwave surveys: from SZ clusters to polarized sources
• An Advanced Analysis Technique for Transient Searches in Wide-Field Gamma-Ray Observatories
• A Bayesian blind survey for cold molecular gas in the Universe
• Bayesian Source Discrimination in Radio Interferometry
• Radio Galaxy Detection in the Visibility Domain
• Multi-frequency point source detection with fully convolutional networks: Performance in realistic microwave sky simulations