# Imaging the Schwarzschild-radius-scale Structure of M87 with the Event Horizon Telescope using Sparse Modeling

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a new sparse modeling imaging technique for interferometry data, enabling super-resolution imaging of black hole shadows with the EHT, surpassing traditional resolution limits.

## Contribution

The paper presents a novel regularization-based imaging method using cross validation to optimize resolution, demonstrating super-resolution capabilities for black hole imaging.

## Key findings

- Achieves 20-30% of diffraction limit resolution
- Successfully reconstructs black hole shadow in simulations
- Enables super-resolution imaging with EHT data

## Abstract

We propose a new imaging technique for radio and optical/infrared interferometry. The proposed technique reconstructs the image from the visibility amplitude and closure phase, which are standard data products of short-millimeter very long baseline interferometers such as the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) and optical/infrared interferometers, by utilizing two regularization functions: the $\ell_1$-norm and total variation (TV) of the brightness distribution. In the proposed method, optimal regularization parameters, which represent the sparseness and effective spatial resolution of the image, are derived from data themselves using cross validation (CV). As an application of this technique, we present simulated observations of M87 with the EHT based on four physically motivated models. We confirm that $\ell_1$+TV regularization can achieve an optimal resolution of $\sim 20-30$% of the diffraction limit $\lambda/D_{\rm max}$, which is the nominal spatial resolution of a radio interferometer. With the proposed technique, the EHT can robustly and reasonably achieve super-resolution sufficient to clearly resolve the black hole shadow. These results make it promising for the EHT to provide an unprecedented view of the event-horizon-scale structure in the vicinity of the super-massive black hole in M87 and also the Galactic center Sgr A*.