Simultaneous PSF Matching via Dual Kernel Optimization
Abstract
Standard point spread function (PSF) matching algorithms consider one image as the reference and aim to find a convolution kernel such that, when applied to the reference image, the PSFs of the reference and non-reference images are matched. This method works well if one image is a degraded version of the other. However, this is not always the case: if the PSFs of the two images have different orientations or shapes, a simple convolution of one of the images does not lead to a satisfactory match. While this can be trivially solved by convolving the first PSF with the second and vice-versa, this results in unnecessarily large PSFs. In this paper, we present a new algorithm, Dual Kernel Optimization (DKO), that simultaneously solves for two convolution kernels, one for each image, such that the PSFs match and the sizes of the kernels are minimized. This results in a minimally-degraded final set of PSFs. Since this problem is highly degenerate, we use Stochastic Gradient Langevin Dynamics (SGLD) which rigorously explores the parameter space and converges on the globally-optimal solution.We discuss the algorithmic challenges for this problem and the modifications to standard SGLD used to constrain it. Finally, we include a discussion on the application of this methodology to real-world images, including cases where the PSF varies over the field of view.
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BibTeX
@misc{rhea2026simultaneous,
title = {{Simultaneous PSF Matching via Dual Kernel Optimization}},
author = {Carter Lee Rhea and Pieter Van Dokkum and Roberto Abraham and Imad Pasha and Steven R. Janssens and William P. Bowman and Deborah Lokhorst and Seery Chen and Qing Lui},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.29860},
eprint = {2609.29860},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.29860},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Simultaneous PSF Matching via Dual Kernel Optimization
AU - Carter Lee Rhea
AU - Pieter Van Dokkum
AU - Roberto Abraham
AU - Imad Pasha
AU - Steven R. Janssens
AU - William P. Bowman
AU - Deborah Lokhorst
AU - Seery Chen
AU - Qing Lui
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/24
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.29860
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.29860
AB - Standard point spread function (PSF) matching algorithms consider one image as the reference and aim to find a convolution kernel such that, when applied to the reference image, the PSFs of the reference and non-reference images are matched. This method works well if one image is a degraded version of the other. However, this is not always the case: if the PSFs of the two images have different orientations or shapes, a simple convolution of one of the images does not lead to a satisfactory match. While this can be trivially solved by convolving the first PSF with the second and vice-versa, this results in unnecessarily large PSFs. In this paper, we present a new algorithm, Dual Kernel Optimization (DKO), that simultaneously solves for two convolution kernels, one for each image, such that the PSFs match and the sizes of the kernels are minimized. This results in a minimally-degraded final set of PSFs. Since this problem is highly degenerate, we use Stochastic Gradient Langevin Dynamics (SGLD) which rigorously explores the parameter space and converges on the globally-optimal solution.We discuss the algorithmic challenges for this problem and the modifications to standard SGLD used to constrain it. Finally, we include a discussion on the application of this methodology to real-world images, including cases where the PSF varies over the field of view.
ER -