26 October 2018 | Michele Cappellari and Yannick Copin
The paper presents new techniques for adaptive spatial binning of Integral-Field Spectroscopic (IFS) data to achieve a constant signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) per bin. The methods are essential for proper analysis of IFS observations and can also be applied to standard photometric imagery or other two-dimensional data. The authors test and compare various schemes by binning and extracting the stellar kinematics of the Sa galaxy NGC 2273 from spectra obtained with the SAURON panoramic IFS instrument.
The problem of binning in spatial direction is formulated, considering the requirements for topological, morphological, and uniformity. The Quadtree method is discussed but found to have limitations, such as unavoidable S/N spread and irregular bin shapes. The Voronoi Tessellation (VT) is proposed as a solution, which naturally enforces topological requirements and is efficiently described by the coordinates of its generators. However, the VT does not address morphological and uniformity requirements.
To address these shortcomings, the Centroidal Voronoi Tessellation (CVT) is introduced, which generates bins with constant mass according to a density distribution. The modified Lloyd algorithm is used to produce equi-mass 2D-CVT bins, which are then used as initial generators for a CVT. This method is applied to real SAURON data of NGC 2273, achieving an RMS S/N scatter of approximately 6%.
The optimal Voronoi 2D-binning algorithm is described in detail, including steps for bin-accretion and CVT construction. The method is robust and can handle bins with a few pixels, making it suitable for both continuous and discrete datasets. The paper concludes by discussing the applicability of the method to three-dimensional data and its potential in various fields such as stellar proper motions and N-body simulations.The paper presents new techniques for adaptive spatial binning of Integral-Field Spectroscopic (IFS) data to achieve a constant signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) per bin. The methods are essential for proper analysis of IFS observations and can also be applied to standard photometric imagery or other two-dimensional data. The authors test and compare various schemes by binning and extracting the stellar kinematics of the Sa galaxy NGC 2273 from spectra obtained with the SAURON panoramic IFS instrument.
The problem of binning in spatial direction is formulated, considering the requirements for topological, morphological, and uniformity. The Quadtree method is discussed but found to have limitations, such as unavoidable S/N spread and irregular bin shapes. The Voronoi Tessellation (VT) is proposed as a solution, which naturally enforces topological requirements and is efficiently described by the coordinates of its generators. However, the VT does not address morphological and uniformity requirements.
To address these shortcomings, the Centroidal Voronoi Tessellation (CVT) is introduced, which generates bins with constant mass according to a density distribution. The modified Lloyd algorithm is used to produce equi-mass 2D-CVT bins, which are then used as initial generators for a CVT. This method is applied to real SAURON data of NGC 2273, achieving an RMS S/N scatter of approximately 6%.
The optimal Voronoi 2D-binning algorithm is described in detail, including steps for bin-accretion and CVT construction. The method is robust and can handle bins with a few pixels, making it suitable for both continuous and discrete datasets. The paper concludes by discussing the applicability of the method to three-dimensional data and its potential in various fields such as stellar proper motions and N-body simulations.