fast-resolve: Fast Bayesian Radio Interferometric Imaging

TL;DR

Fast-resolve is a new Bayesian radio interferometric imaging algorithm that significantly reduces computational time, enabling analysis of larger datasets while maintaining accuracy, thus broadening the practical application of Bayesian imaging methods.

Contribution

The paper introduces fast-resolve, a computationally efficient Bayesian imaging algorithm that combines CLEAN shortcuts with resolve, allowing faster processing of large radio interferometric datasets.

Findings

Fast-resolve is about 144 times faster than resolve on VLA Cygnus A data.

Fast-resolve maintains accuracy comparable to resolve.

The algorithm enables processing of large MeerKAT datasets previously infeasible.

Abstract

Context: Interferometric imaging is algorithmically and computationally challenging as there is no unique inversion from the measurement data back to the sky maps, and the datasets can be very large. Many imaging methods already exist, but most of them focus either on the accuracy or the computational aspect. Aims: This paper aims to reduce the computational complexity of the Bayesian imaging algorithm resolve, enabling the application of Bayesian imaging for larger datasets. Methods: By combining computational shortcuts of the CLEAN algorithm with the Bayesian imaging algorithm resolve we developed an accurate and fast imaging algorithm which we name fast-resolve. Results: We validate the accuracy of the presented fast-resolve algorithm by comparing it with results from resolve on VLA Cygnus A data. Furthermore, we demonstrate the computational advantages of fast-resolve on a large MeerKAT ESO 137-006 dataset which is computationally out of reach for resolve. Conclusions: The presented algorithm is significantly faster than previous Bayesian imaging algorithms, broadening the applicability of Bayesian interferometric imaging. Specifically for the single channel VLA Cygnus A datasets fast-resolve is about $144$ times faster than resolve. For the MeerKAT dataset with multiple channels the computational speedup of fast-resolve is even larger.