arXiv subjects

Jérôme Bobin

Publications and source records attributed to Jérôme Bobin.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Bayesian approach for uncertainty quantification of hybrid spectral unmixing in $γ$-ray spectrometry

Identifying and quantifying $γ$-emitting radionuclides, considering spectral deformation from $γ$-interactions in radioactive source surroundings, present a significant challenge in $γ$-ray spectrometry. In that context, a hybrid machine learning method has been previously proposed to jointly estimate the counting and spectral signatures of $γ$-emitters under conditions of spectral variability. This paper addresses the uncertainty quantification of the estimators (i.e., the counting and the variable $λ$ which characterizes the spectral signatures) obtained by this spectral unmixing algorithm. The focus is on the coverage interval, as defined by the GUM, which corresponds closely to a credible interval in the Bayesian framework. Given the inverse problem and the constraints associated with spectral deformation, two Bayesian methods - Laplace approximation and Markov Chain Monte Carlo - have been developed for uncertainty quantification to ensure robust decision-making. The Laplace approximation technique approximates the posterior distribution by a Gaussian distribution, while the Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique samples the posterior distribution. This study evaluates these two methods in terms of precision of coverage interval based on repeated Monte Carlo samples using the long-run success rate. Numerical experiments show that both methods yield similar results close to the expected success rate of 95.4$\%$ when constraints related to spectral signatures deformation and counting are inactive. However, when constraints are active or the background counting significantly dominates other radionuclides, the Laplace approximation method deviates from the expected long-run success rate due to the non-Gaussian posterior distribution. In such cases, the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method still provides robust results.

physics.data-an↗

arXiv2025

Comparative study of machine learning and statistical methods for automatic identification and quantification in γ-ray spectrometry

During the last decade, a large number of different numerical methods have been proposed to tackle the automatic identification and quantification in γ-ray spectrometry. However, the lack of common benchmarks, including datasets, code and comparison metrics, makes their evaluation and comparison hard. In that context, we propose an open-source benchmark that comprises simulated datasets of various γ-spectrometry settings, codes of different analysis approaches and evaluation metrics. This allows us to compare the state-of-the-art end-to-end machine learning with a statistical unmixing approach using the full spectrum. Three scenarios have been investigated: (1) spectral signatures are assumed to be known; (2) spectral signatures are deformed due to physical phenomena such as Compton scattering and attenuation; and (3) spectral signatures are shifted (e.g., due to temperature variation). A large dataset of 200000 simulated spectra containing nine radionuclides with an experimental natural background is used for each scenario with multiple radionuclides present in the spectrum. Regarding identification performance, the statistical approach consistently outperforms the machine learning approaches across all three scenarios for all comparison metrics. However, the performance of the statistical approach can be significantly impacted when spectral signatures are not modeled correctly. Consequently, the full-spectrum statistical approach is most effective with known or well-modeled spectral signatures, while end-to-end machine learning is a good alternative when measurement conditions are uncertain for radionuclide identification. Concerning the quantification task, the statistical approach provides accurate estimates of radionuclide counting, while the machine learning methods deliver less satisfactory results.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2025

Extraction of gravitational wave signals from LISA data in the presence of artifacts

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission is being developed by ESA with NASA participation. As it has recently passed the Mission Adoption milestone, models of the instruments and noise performance are becoming more detailed, and likewise prototype data analyses must as well. Assumptions such as Gaussianity, stationarity, and data continuity are unrealistic, and must be replaced with physically motivated data simulations, and data analysis methods adapted to accommodate such likely imperfections. To this end, the LISA Data Challenges have produced datasets featuring time-varying and unequal constellation armlength, and measurement artifacts including data interruptions and instrumental transients. In this work, we assess the impact of these data artifacts on the inference of Galactic Binary and Massive Black Hole properties. Our analysis shows that the treatment of noise transients and gaps is necessary for effective parameter estimation, as they substantially corrupt the analysis if unmitigated. We find that straightforward mitigation techniques can significantly if imperfectly suppress artifacts. For the Galactic Binaries, mitigation of glitches was essentially total, while mitigations of the data gaps increased parameter uncertainty by approximately 10%. For the Massive Black Hole binaries the particularly pernicious glitches resulted in a 30% uncertainty increase after mitigations, while the data gaps can increase parameter uncertainty by up to several times. Critically, this underlines the importance of early detection of transient gravitational waves to ensure they are protected from planned data interruptions.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Best of both worlds: Fusing hyperspectral data from two generations of spectro-imagers for X-ray astrophysics

With the launch of the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) and the advent of microcalorimeter detectors, X-ray astrophysics is entering in a new era of spatially resolved high resolution spectroscopy. But while this new generation of X-ray telescopes have much finer spectral resolutions than their predecessors (e.g. XMM-Newton, Chandra), they also have coarser spatial resolutions, leading to problematic cross-pixel contamination. This issue is currently a critical limitation for the study of extended sources such as galaxy clusters or supernova remnants. To increase the scientific output of XRISM's hyperspectral data, we propose to fuse it with XMM-Newton data, and seek to obtain a cube with the best spatial and spectral resolution of both generations. This is the aim of hyperspectral fusion. In this article, we have implemented an algorithm that jointly deconvolves the spatial response of XRISM and the spectral response of XMM-Newton. To do so, we construct a forward model adapted for instrumental systematic degradations and Poisson noise, then tackle hyperspectral fusion as a regularized inverse problem. We test three methods of regularization: low rank approximation with Sobolev regularization; low rank approximation with 2D wavelet sparsity ; and 2D-1D wavelet sparsity. We test our method on toy models constructed from hydrodynamic simulations of supernova remnants. We find that our method reconstructs the ground truth well even when the toy model is complex. For the regularization term, we find that while the low rank approximation worked well as a spectral denoiser in models with less spectral variability, it introduced a bias in models with more spectral variability, in which case the 2D-1D wavelet sparsity regularization worked best. After demonstrating a proof of concept in this article, we aim to apply this method to real X-ray astrophysical data in the near future.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2024

Uncertainty quantification for fast reconstruction methods using augmented equivariant bootstrap: Application to radio interferometry

The advent of next-generation radio interferometers like the Square Kilometer Array promises to revolutionise our radio astronomy observational capabilities. The unprecedented volume of data these devices generate requires fast and accurate image reconstruction algorithms to solve the ill-posed radio interferometric imaging problem. Most state-of-the-art reconstruction methods lack trustworthy and scalable uncertainty quantification, which is critical for the rigorous scientific interpretation of radio observations. We propose an unsupervised technique based on a conformalized version of a radio-augmented equivariant bootstrapping method, which allows us to quantify uncertainties for fast reconstruction methods. Noticeably, we rely on reconstructions from ultra-fast unrolled algorithms. The proposed method brings more reliable uncertainty estimations to our problem than existing alternatives.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2024

SUSHI: An algorithm for source separation of hyperspectral images with non-stationary spectral variation

Hyperspectral images are data cubes with two spatial dimensions and a third spectral dimension, providing a spectrum for each pixel, and thus allow the mapping of extended sources' physical properties. In this article, we present the Semi-blind Unmixing with Sparsity for Hyperspectral Images (SUSHI), an algorithm for non-stationary unmixing of hyperspectral images with spatial regularization of spectral parameters. The method allows for the disentangling of physical components without the assumption of a unique spectrum for each component. Thus, unlike most source separation methods used in astrophysics, all physical components obtained by SUSHI vary in spectral shape and in amplitude across the data cube. Non-stationary source separation is an ill-posed inverse problem that needs to be constrained. We achieve this by training a spectral model and applying a spatial regularization constraint on its parameters. For the spectral model, we used an Interpolatory Auto-Encoder, a generative model that can be trained with limited samples. For spatial regularization, we applied a sparsity constraint on the wavelet transform of the model parameter maps. We applied SUSHI to a toy model meant to resemble supernova remnants in X-ray astrophysics, though the method may be used on any extended source with any hyperspectral instrument. We compared this result to the one obtained by a classic 1D fit on each individual pixel. We find that SUSHI obtains more accurate results, particularly when it comes to reconstructing physical parameters. We applied SUSHI to real X-ray data from the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A and to the Crab Nebula. The results obtained are realistic and in accordance with past findings but have a much better spatial resolution. Thanks to spatial regularization, SUSHI can obtain reliable physical parameters at fine scales that are out of reach for pixel-by-pixel methods.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2023

Retrieving the 21-cm signal from the Epoch of Reionization with learnt Gaussian process kernels

Direct detection of the Cosmic Dawn and Epoch of Reionization via the redshifted 21-cm line of neutral Hydrogen will have unprecedented implications for studying structure formation in the early Universe. This exciting goal is challenged by the difficulty of extracting the faint 21-cm signal buried beneath bright astrophysical foregrounds and contaminated by numerous systematics. Here, we focus on improving the Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) signal separation method originally developed for LOFAR observations. We address a key limitation of the current approach by incorporating covariance prior models learnt from 21-cm signal simulations using Variational Autoencoder (VAE) and Interpolatory Autoencoder (IAE). Extensive tests are conducted to evaluate GPR, VAE-GPR, and IAE-GPR in different scenarios. Our findings reveal that the new method outperforms standard GPR in component separation tasks. Moreover, the improved method demonstrates robustness when applied to signals not represented in the training set. It also presents a certain degree of resilience to data systematics, highlighting its ability to effectively mitigate their impact on the signal recovery process. However, our findings also underscore the importance of accurately characterizing and understanding these systematics to achieve successful detection. Our generative approaches provide good results even with limited training data, offering a valuable advantage when a large training set is not feasible. Comparing the two algorithms, IAE-GPR shows slightly higher fidelity in recovering power spectra compared to VAE-GPR. These advancements highlight the strength of generative approaches and optimise the analysis techniques for future 21-cm signal detection at high redshifts.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2022

Semi-Blind Source Separation with Learned Constraints

Blind source separation (BSS) algorithms are unsupervised methods, which are the cornerstone of hyperspectral data analysis by allowing for physically meaningful data decompositions. BSS problems being ill-posed, the resolution requires efficient regularization schemes to better distinguish between the sources and yield interpretable solutions. For that purpose, we investigate a semi-supervised source separation approach in which we combine a projected alternating least-square algorithm with a learning-based regularization scheme. In this article, we focus on constraining the mixing matrix to belong to a learned manifold by making use of generative models. Altogether, we show that this allows for an innovative BSS algorithm, with improved accuracy, which provides physically interpretable solutions. The proposed method, coined sGMCA, is tested on realistic hyperspectral astrophysical data in challenging scenarios involving strong noise, highly correlated spectra and unbalanced sources. The results highlight the significant benefit of the learned prior to reduce the leakages between the sources, which allows an overall better disentanglement.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2022

Unrolling PALM for sparse semi-blind source separation

Sparse Blind Source Separation (BSS) has become a well established tool for a wide range of applications - for instance, in astrophysics and remote sensing. Classical sparse BSS methods, such as the Proximal Alternating Linearized Minimization (PALM) algorithm, nevertheless often suffer from a difficult hyperparameter choice, which undermines their results. To bypass this pitfall, we propose in this work to build on the thriving field of algorithm unfolding/unrolling. Unrolling PALM enables to leverage the data-driven knowledge stemming from realistic simulations or ground-truth data by learning both PALM hyperparameters and variables. In contrast to most existing unrolled algorithms, which assume a fixed known dictionary during the training and testing phases, this article further emphasizes on the ability to deal with variable mixing matrices (a.k.a. dictionaries). The proposed Learned PALM (LPALM) algorithm thus enables to perform semi-blind source separation, which is key to increase the generalization of the learnt model in real-world applications. We illustrate the relevance of LPALM in astrophysical multispectral imaging: the algorithm not only needs up to $10^4-10^5$ times fewer iterations than PALM, but also improves the separation quality, while avoiding the cumbersome hyperparameter and initialization choice of PALM. We further show that LPALM outperforms other unrolled source separation methods in the semi-blind setting.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2021

Three-dimensional morphological asymmetries in the ejecta of Cassiopeia A using a component separation method in X-rays

Recent simulations have shown that asymmetries in the ejecta distribution of supernova remnants (SNR) can still reflect asymmetries from the initial supernova explosion. Thus, their study provides a great means to test and constrain model predictions in relation to the distributions of heavy elements or the neutron star kicks, both of which are key to better understanding the explosion mechanisms in core-collapse supernovae. The use of a novel blind source separation method applied to the megasecond X-ray observations of the well-known Cassiopeia A SNR has revealed maps of the distribution of the ejecta endowed with an unprecedented level of detail and clearly separated from continuum emission. Our method also provides a three-dimensional view of the ejecta by disentangling the red- and blue-shifted spectral components and associated images of the Si, S, Ar, Ca and Fe, providing insights into the morphology of the ejecta distribution in Cassiopeia A. These mappings allow us to thoroughly investigate the asymmetries in the heavy elements distribution and probe simulation predictions about the neutron star kicks and the relative asymmetries between the different elements. We find in our study that most of the ejecta X-ray flux stems from the red-shifted component, suggesting an asymmetry in the explosion. In addition, the red-shifted ejecta can physically be described as a broad, relatively symmetric plume, whereas the blue-shifted ejecta is more similar to a dense knot. The neutron star also moves directly opposite to the red-shifted parts of the ejecta similar to what is seen with 44Ti. Regarding the morphological asymmetries, it appears that heavier elements have more asymmetrical distributions, which confirms predictions made by simulations. This study is a showcase of the capacities of new analysis methods to revisit archival observations to fully exploit their scientific content.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Sparse data inpainting for the recovery of Galactic-binary gravitational wave signals from gapped data

The forthcoming space-based gravitational wave observatory LISA will open a new window for the measurement of galactic binaries, which will deliver unprecedented information about these systems. However, the detection of galactic binary gravitational wave signals is challenged by the presence of gaps in the data. Whether being planned or not, gapped data dramatically reduce our ability to detect faint signals and the risk of misdetection soars. Inspired by advances in signal processing, we introduce a \nonparametric inpainting algorithm based on the sparse representation of the galactic binary signal in the Fourier domain. In contrast to traditional inpainting approaches, noise statistics are known theoretically on ungapped measurements only. This calls for the joint recovery of both the ungapped noise and the galactic binary signal. We thoroughly show that sparse inpainting yields an accurate estimation of the gravitational imprint of the galactic binaries. Additionally, we highlight that the proposed algorithm produces a statistically consistent ungapped noise estimate. We further evaluate the performances of the proposed inpainting methods to recover the gravitational wave signal on a simple example involving verification galactic binaries recently proposed in LISA data challenges.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

21cm foregrounds and polarization leakage: a user's guide on cleaning and mitigation strategies

The success of HI intensity mapping is largely dependent on how well 21cm foreground contamination can be controlled. In order to progress our understanding further, we present a range of simulated foreground data from four different $\sim3000$\,deg$^2$ sky regions, with and without effects from polarization leakage. Combining these with underlying cosmological HI simulations creates a range of single-dish intensity mapping test cases that require different foreground treatments. This allows us to conduct the most generalized study to date into 21cm foregrounds and their cleaning techniques for the post-reionization era. We first provide a pedagogical review of the most commonly used blind foreground removal techniques (PCA/SVD, FASTICA, GMCA). We also trial a non-blind parametric fitting technique and discuss potential hybridization of methods. We highlight the similarities and differences in these techniques finding that the blind methods produce near equivalent results, and we explain the fundamental reasons for this. The simulations allow an exact decomposition of the resulting cleaned data and we analyse the contribution from foreground residuals. Our results demonstrate that polarized foreground residuals should be generally subdominant to HI on small scales ($k\gtrsim0.1\,h\,\text{Mpc}^{-1}$). However, on larger scales, results are more region dependent. In some cases, aggressive cleans severely damp HI power but still leave dominant foreground residuals. We also demonstrate the gain from cross-correlations with optical galaxy surveys, where extreme levels of residual foregrounds can be circumvented. However, these residuals still contribute to errors and we discuss the optimal balance between over- and under-cleaning.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

Joint deconvolution and unsupervised source separation for data on the sphere

Tackling unsupervised source separation jointly with an additional inverse problem such as deconvolution is central for the analysis of multi-wavelength data. This becomes highly challenging when applied to large data sampled on the sphere such as those provided by wide-field observations in astrophysics, whose analysis requires the design of dedicated robust and yet effective algorithms. We therefore investigate a new joint deconvolution/sparse blind source separation method dedicated for data sampled on the sphere, coined SDecGMCA. It is based on a projected alternate least-squares minimization scheme, whose accuracy is proved to strongly rely on some regularization scheme in the present joint deconvolution/blind source separation setting. To this end, a regularization strategy is introduced that allows designing a new robust and effective algorithm, which is key to analyze large spherical data. Numerical experiments are carried out on toy examples and realistic astronomical data.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2020

Recovery of 21 cm intensity maps with sparse component separation

21 cm intensity mapping has emerged as a promising technique to map the large-scale structure of the Universe. However, the presence of foregrounds with amplitudes orders of magnitude larger than the cosmological signal constitutes a critical challenge. Here, we test the sparsity-based algorithm Generalised Morphological Component Analysis (GMCA) as a blind component separation technique for this class of experiments. We test the GMCA performance against realistic full-sky mock temperature maps that include, besides astrophysical foregrounds, also a fraction of the polarized part of the signal leaked into the unpolarized one, a very troublesome foreground to subtract, usually referred to as polarization leakage. To our knowledge, this is the first time the removal of such component is performed with no prior assumption. We assess the success of the cleaning by comparing the true and recovered power spectra, in the angular and radial directions. In the best scenario looked at, GMCA is able to recover the input angular (radial) power spectrum with an average bias of $\sim 5\%$ for $\ell>25$ ($20 - 30 \%$ for $k_{\parallel} \gtrsim 0.02 \,h^{-1}$Mpc), in the presence of polarization leakage. Our results are robust also when up to $40\%$ of channels are missing, mimicking a Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) flagging of the data. Having quantified the notable effect of polarisation leakage on our results, in perspective we advocate the use of more realistic simulations when testing 21 cm intensity mapping capabilities.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

A novel method for component separation of extended sources in X-ray astronomy

In high-energy astronomy, spectro-imaging instruments such as X-ray detectors allow investigation of the spatial and spectral properties of extended sources including galaxy clusters, galaxies, diffuse interstellar medium, supernova remnants and pulsar wind nebulae. In these sources, each physical component possesses a different spatial and spectral signature, but the components are entangled. Extracting the intrinsic spatial and spectral information of the individual components from this data is a challenging task. Current analysis methods do not fully exploit the 2D-1D (x,y,E) nature of the data, as the spatial and spectral information are considered separately. Here we investigate the application of a Blind Source Separation algorithm that jointly exploits the spectral and spatial signatures of each component in order to disentangle them. We explore the capabilities of a new BSS method (General Morphological Component Analysis; GMCA), initially developed to extract an image of the Cosmic Microwave Background from Planck data, in an X-ray context. The performance of GMCA on X-ray data is tested using Monte-Carlo simulations of supernova remnant toy models, designed to represent typical science cases. We find that GMCA is able to separate highly entangled components in X-ray data even in high contrast scenarios, and can extract with high accuracy the spectrum and map of each physical component. A modification is proposed to improve the spectral fidelity in the case of strongly overlapping spatial components, and we investigate a resampling method to derive realistic uncertainties associated to the results of the algorithm. Applying the modified algorithm to the deep Chandra observations of Cassiopeia A, we are able to produce detailed maps of the synchrotron emission at low energies (0.6-2.2 keV), and of the red/blue shifted distributions of a number of elements including Si and Fe K.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2019

Representation learning for automated spectroscopic redshift estimation

Determining the radial positions of galaxies up to a high accuracy depends on the correct identification of salient features in their spectra. Classical techniques for spectroscopic redshift estimation make use of template matching with cross-correlation. These templates are usually constructed from empirical spectra or simulations based on the modeling of local galaxies. We propose two new spectroscopic redshift estimation schemes based on new learning techniques for galaxy spectra representation, using either a dictionary learning technique for sparse representation or denoising autoencoders. We investigate how these representations impact redshift estimation. These methods have been tested on realistic simulated galaxy spectra, with photometry modelled after the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) and spectroscopy reproducing properties of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). They were compared to Darth Fader, a robust technique extracting line features and estimating redshift through eigentemplates cross-correlations. We show that both dictionary learning and denoising autoencoders provide improved accuracy and reliability across all signal-to-noise regimes and galaxy types. The representation learning framework for spectroscopic redshift analysis introduced in this work offers high performance in feature extraction and redshift estimation, improving on a classical eigentemplates approach. This is a necessity for next-generation galaxy surveys, and we demonstrate a successful application in realistic simulated survey data.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2019

Determining thermal dust emission from Planck HFI data using a sparse, parametric technique

Context: The Planck data releases have provided the community with sub-millimetre and radio observations of the full-sky at unprecedented resolutions. We make use of the Planck 353, 545 and 857 GHz maps alongside the IRAS 3000 GHz map. These maps contain information on the cosmic microwave background (CMB), cosmic infrared background (CIB), extragalactic point sources and diffuse thermal dust emission. Aims: We aim to determine the modified black body (MBB) model parameters of thermal dust emission in total intensity and produce all sky maps of pure thermal dust, having separated this Galactic component from the CMB and CIB. Methods: This separation is completed using a new, sparsity-based, parametric method which we refer to as premise. The method comprises of three main stages: 1) filtering of the raw data to reduce the effect of the CIB on the MBB fit. 2) fitting an MBB model to the filtered data across super-pixels of various sizes determined by the algorithm itself and 3) refining these super-pixel estimates into full resolution maps of the MBB parameters. Results: We present our maps of MBB temperature, spectral index and optical depth at 5 arcmin resolution and compare our estimates to those of GNILC as well as the two-step MBB fit presented by the Planck collaboration in 2013. Conclusions: By exploiting sparsity we avoid the need for smoothing, enabling us to produce the first full resolution MBB parameter maps from intensity measurements of thermal dust emission.We consider the premise parameter estimates to be competitive with the existing state-of-the-art solutions, outperforming these methods within low signal-to-noise regions as we account for the CIB without removing thermal dust emission through over-smoothing.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

Two-pixel polarimetric camera by compressive sensing

We propose an original concept of compressive sensing (CS) polarimetric imaging based on a digital micro-mirror (DMD) array and two single-pixel detectors. The polarimetric sensitivity of the proposed setup is due to an experimental imperfection of reflecting mirrors which is exploited here to form an original reconstruction problem, including a CS problem and a source separation task. We show that a two-step approach tackling each problem successively is outperformed by a dedicated combined reconstruction method, which is explicited in this article and preferably implemented through a reweighted FISTA algorithm. The combined reconstruction approach is then further improved by including physical constraints specific to the polarimetric imaging context considered, which are implemented in an original constrained GFB algorithm. Numerical simulations demonstrate the efficiency of the 2-pixel CS polarimetric imaging setup to retrieve polarimetric contrast data with significant compression rate and good reconstruction quality. The influence of experimental imperfections of the DMD are also analyzed through numerical simulations, and 2D polarimetric imaging reconstruction results are finally presented.

cs.CV↗