The Universal Bayesian Imaging Kit

TL;DR

The paper introduces the Universal Bayesian Imaging Kit (UBIK), a unified, open-source framework based on information field theory for Bayesian imaging across various astrophysical instruments, enabling joint analysis and separation of emission types.

Contribution

UBIK unifies Bayesian imaging for diverse astrophysical data using information field theory, providing instrument-independent models and interfaces, and supporting joint multi-instrument analysis.

Findings

Successfully images data from multiple telescopes including Chandra, eROSITA, JWST, and ALMA.

Provides instrument-independent sky models and response representations.

Enables separation of diffuse emission, point sources, and extended regions.

Abstract

Bayesian imaging of astrophysical measurement data shares universal properties across the electromagnetic spectrum: it requires probabilistic descriptions of possible images and spectra, and instrument responses. To unify Bayesian imaging, we present the Universal Bayesian Imaging Kit (UBIK). Currently, UBIK images data from Chandra, eROSITA, JWST, and ALMA. UBIK is based on information field theory (IFT), the mathematical theory of field inference, and on NIFTy, a package for numerical IFT. UBIK provides sky models that are instrument independent and instrument interfaces that share common parts of their response representations. It is open source, can provide spatio-spectral image cubes, jointly analyses data from several instruments, and separates diffuse emission, point sources, and extended emission regions.