The Application of Maximum Entropy Techniques to Chopped Astronomical Infrared Data

Abstract

We discuss the application of maximum entropy techniques to chopped astronomical infrared data. The resulting maps are much better than those obtained with the only existing published algorithm. Nevertheless, we feel that the technique requires further improvement before it can yield all the information inherent in such data. In the course of our investigation of the method, an interesting limit of the maximum entropy solution was discovered. This enables a solution of the maximum entropy equations for a large class of problems. The resulting solution illustrates the freezing of degrees of freedom discussed elsewhere in these proceedings. Finally, we discuss an apparently attractive method for assessing the errors on a reconstruction, and why we feel that such a formalism is incomplete.

Based on data obtained at the European Southern Observatory.

Affiliated with the Astrophysics Division, Space Science Department of the European Space Agency