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Morphology of the Galaxy Distribution from Wavelet Denoising
Vicent J. Martínez,Jean-Luc Starck,Enn Saar,David L. Donoho,Simon C. Reynolds,Pablo de la Cruz, andSilvestre Paredes
© 2005. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.
The Astrophysical Journal,Volume 634,Number 2Citation Vicent J. Martínezet al 2005ApJ634 744DOI 10.1086/497125
Vicent J. Martínez
AFFILIATIONS
Observatori Astronòmic, Universitat de València, Apartat de Correus 22085, E-46071 València, Spain
Jean-Luc Starck
AFFILIATIONS
Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique-Saclay, DAPNIA/SEDI-SAP, Service d’Astrophysique, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Enn Saar
AFFILIATIONS
Tartu Observatoorium, Tõravere, 61602, Estonia
David L. Donoho
AFFILIATIONS
Department of Statistics, Stanford University, Sequoia Hall, Stanford, CA 94305
Simon C. Reynolds
AFFILIATIONS
Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ, UK
Pablo de la Cruz
AFFILIATIONS
Observatorio Astronómico, Universidad de Valencia, Apartado de Correos 22085, E-46071 Valencia, Spain
Silvestre Paredes
AFFILIATIONS
Departamento de Matemática Aplicada y Estadística, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, 30203 Cartagena, Spain
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Dates
- Received2005 May 23
- Accepted2005 July 29
Abstract
We have developed a method based on wavelets to obtain the true underlying smooth density from a point distribution. The goal has been to reconstruct the density field in an optimal way, ensuring that the morphology of the reconstructed field reflects the true underlying morphology of the point field, which, as the galaxy distribution, has a genuinely multiscale structure, with near-singular behavior on sheets, filaments, and hot spots. If the discrete distributions are smoothed using Gaussian filters, the morphological properties tend to be closer to those expected for a Gaussian field. The use of wavelet denoising provides us with a unique and more accurate morphological description.
