Rethinking data-driven point spread function modeling with a differentiable optical model

 

Authors:

Tobias Liaudat, Jean-Luc Starck, Martin Kilbinger, Pierre-Antoine Frugier

Journal: Inverse Problems
Year: 2023
DOI:  
Download: ADS | arXiv


Abstract

In astronomy, upcoming space telescopes with wide-field optical instruments have a spatially varying point spread function (PSF). Specific scientific goals require a high-fidelity estimation of the PSF at target positions where no direct measurement of the PSF is provided. Even though observations of the PSF are available at some positions of the field of view (FOV), they are undersampled, noisy, and integrated into wavelength in the instrument's passband. PSF modeling represents a challenging ill-posed problem, as it requires building a model from these observations that can infer a super-resolved PSF at any wavelength and position in the FOV. Current data-driven PSF models can tackle spatial variations and super-resolution. However, they are not capable of capturing PSF chromatic variations. Our model, coined WaveDiff, proposes a paradigm shift in the data-driven modeling of the point spread function field of telescopes. We change the data-driven modeling space from the pixels to the wavefront by adding a differentiable optical forward model into the modeling framework. This change allows the transfer of a great deal of complexity from the instrumental response into the forward model. The proposed model relies on efficient automatic differentiation technology and modern stochastic first-order optimization techniques recently developed by the thriving machine-learning community. Our framework paves the way to building powerful, physically motivated models that do not require special calibration data. This paper demonstrates the WaveDiff model in a simplified setting of a space telescope. The proposed framework represents a performance breakthrough with respect to the existing state-of-the-art data-driven approach. The pixel reconstruction errors decrease six-fold at observation resolution and 44-fold for a 3x super-resolution. The ellipticity errors are reduced at least 20 times, and the size error is reduced more than 250 times. By only using noisy broad-band in-focus observations, we successfully capture the PSF chromatic variations due to diffraction. WaveDiff source code and examples associated with this paper are available at this link .

Deep Learning-based galaxy image deconvolution

 

Authors: Utsav AkhauryJean-Luc StarckPascale JablonkaFrédéric CourbinKevin Michalewicz
Journal: A&A
Year: 2022
DOI:  
Download: ADS | arXiv


Abstract

With the onset of large-scale astronomical surveys capturing millions of images, there is an increasing need to develop fast and accurate deconvolution algorithms that generalize well to different images. A powerful and accessible deconvolution method would allow for the reconstruction of a cleaner estimation of the sky. The deconvolved images would be helpful to perform photometric measurements to help make progress in the fields of galaxy formation and evolution. We propose a new deconvolution method based on the Learnlet transform. Eventually, we investigate and compare the performance of different Unet architectures and Learnlet for image deconvolution in the astrophysical domain by following a two-step approach: a Tikhonov deconvolution with a closed-form solution, followed by post-processing with a neural network. To generate our training dataset, we extract HST cutouts from the CANDELS survey in the F606W filter (V-band) and corrupt these images to simulate their blurred-noisy versions. Our numerical results based on these simulations show a detailed comparison between the considered methods for different noise levels.

Valeria Pettorino: Making an impact in Space, Cosmos and Mentoring

Valeria’s’ fascination with the world of science first began as a young child, in part thanks to her uncle’s influence. During the course of our discussion she recalls how she enjoyed a mixture of subjects when at school: “At that point in time I was not into cosmology, but I liked science, logic and mathematics and being able to combine those subjects with artistic projects, creative writing and travellingMy uncle was also a physicist and would share his passion for science fiction, strings and extra dimensions, which I found inspiring at a young age. Valeria shares that some of her favourite science fiction authors are Jack Vance and Joseph Farmer.

Heraklion: A “Titan” from ITE brings to Crete the “ERA seat” of astroinformatics

Μια νέα επιστημονική κατεύθυνση στον αναδυόμενο τομέα της αστροπληροφορικής εγκαινιάζεται στο Ινστιτούτο Αστρονομίας του Ιδρύματος Τεχνολογίας και Έρευνας, που εδρεύει στο Ηράκλειο, χάρη στη δημιουργία μιας “έδρας ERA (European Research Area)” από την Ευρωπαϊκή Επιτροπή.

 

UNIONS: The impact of systematic errors on weak-lensing peak counts

 

Authors: E. Ayçoberry, V. Ajani, A. Guinot, M. Kilbinger, V. Pettorino, S. Farrens, J.-L. Starck, R. Gavazzi, M. Hudson
Journal: A&A
Year: 2022
DOI:  
Download: ADS | arXiv


Abstract

Context. The Ultraviolet Near-Infrared Optical Northern Survey (UNIONS) is an ongoing deep photometric multi-band survey of the Northern sky. As part of UNIONS, the Canada-France Imaging Survey (CFIS) provides r-band data which we use to study weak-lensing peak counts for cosmological inference.
Aims. We assess systematic effects for weak-lensing peak counts and their impact on cosmological parameters for the UNIONS survey. In particular, we present results on local calibration, metacalibration shear bias, baryonic feedback, the source galaxy redshift estimate, intrinsic alignment, and the cluster member dilution.

Methods. For each uncertainty and systematic effect, we describe our mitigation scheme and the impact on cosmological parameter constraints. We obtain constraints on cosmological parameters from MCMC using CFIS data and MassiveNuS N-body simulations as a model for peak counts statistics.
Results. Depending on the calibration (local versus global, and the inclusion of the residual multiplicative shear bias), the mean matter density parameter Ωm can shift up to −0.024 (−0.5σ). We also see that including baryonic corrections can shift Ωm by +0.027 (+0.5σ) with respect to the DM-only simulations. Reducing the impact of the intrinsic alignment and cluster member dilution through signal-to-noise cuts can lead to a shift in Ωm of +0.027 (+0.5σ). Finally, with a mean redshift uncertainty of ∆z ̄ = 0.03, we see that the shift of Ωm (+0.001 which corresponds to +0.02σ) is not significant.

Conclusions. This paper investigates for the first time with UNIONS weak-lensing data and peak counts the impact of systematic effects. The value of Ωm is the most impacted and can shift up to ∼ 0.03 which corresponds to 0.5σ depending on the choices for each systematics. We expect constraints to become more reliable with future (larger) data catalogues, for which the current pipeline will provide a starting point. The code used to obtain the results is available in the following Github repository.

ShapePipe: a new shape measurement pipeline and weak-lensing application to UNIONS/CFIS data

 

Authors: A. Guinot, M. Kilbinger, S. Farrens, A. Peel, A. Pujol, M. Schmitz, J.-L. Starck, T. Erben, R. Gavazzi, S. Gwyn, M. Hudson,  H. Hiledebrandt, T. Liaudat , et. al
Journal: A&A
Year: 2022
DOI:  
Download: ADS | arXiv


Abstract

UNIONS is an ongoing collaboration that will provide the largest deep photometric survey of the Northern sky in four optical bands to date. As part of this collaboration, CFIS is taking r-band data with an average seeing of 0.65 arcsec, which is complete to magnitude 24.5 and thus ideal for weak-lensing studies. We perform the first weak-lensing analysis of CFIS r-band data over an area spanning 1700 deg2 of the sky. We create a catalogue with measured shapes for 40 million galaxies, corresponding to an effective density of 6.8 galaxies per square arcminute, and demonstrate a low level of systematic biases. This work serves as the basis for further cosmological studies using the full UNIONS survey of 4800 deg2 when completed. Here we present ShapePipe, a newly developed weak-lensing pipeline. This pipeline makes use of state-of-the-art methods such as Ngmix for accurate galaxy shape measurement. Shear calibration is performed with metacalibration. We carry out extensive validation tests on the Point Spread Function (PSF), and on the galaxy shapes. In addition, we create realistic image simulations to validate the estimated shear. We quantify the PSF model accuracy and show that the level of systematics is low as measured by the PSF residuals. Their effect on the shear two-point correlation function is sub-dominant compared to the cosmological contribution on angular scales <100 arcmin. The additive shear bias is below 5x104, and the residual multiplicative shear bias is at most 103 as measured on image simulations. Using COSEBIs we show that there are no significant B-modes present in second-order shear statistics. We present convergence maps and see clear correlations of the E-mode with known cluster positions. We measure the stacked tangential shear profile around Planck clusters at a significance higher than 4σ.