Astronomical Image Superresolution Reconstruction with Deep Learning for Better Identification of Interacting Galaxies

Galaxy–galaxy mergers are crucial in galaxy evolution, but the tidal features around galaxies are often faint, making it difficult to identify interacting or merging galaxies. High-resolution images of galaxies can identify fine structures within galaxies, which are essential for identifying and dis...

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Main Authors: Jiawei Miao, Liangping Tu, Hao Liu, Jian Zhao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2025-01-01
Series:The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/adca34
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author Jiawei Miao
Liangping Tu
Hao Liu
Jian Zhao
author_facet Jiawei Miao
Liangping Tu
Hao Liu
Jian Zhao
author_sort Jiawei Miao
collection DOAJ
description Galaxy–galaxy mergers are crucial in galaxy evolution, but the tidal features around galaxies are often faint, making it difficult to identify interacting or merging galaxies. High-resolution images of galaxies can identify fine structures within galaxies, which are essential for identifying and distinguishing different substructures within merging systems. However, due to observational and instrumental limitations, galaxy data is often collected at low resolution. To further improve visual quality and enhance the details of galaxy structures, we propose a dual-branch network structure combining convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and Transformer (DBCTNet), which leverages the local characteristics of CNNs to complement the global features of Transformer. We select four representative models for comparative experiments: Real-ESRGAN, SwinIR, Hybrid Attention Transformer, and EDAT. In the experiment, we adopt a two-stage training strategy. The results from the first stage show that DBCTNet improves the peak signal-to-noise ratio by 0.13, 0.19, 0.12, and 0.11, respectively, and achieves the highest structural similarity index value of 0.5578. In the second stage, we use DBCTNet, trained in the first stage as the generator, to train the galaxy image superresolution reconstruction model based on generative adversarial networks, DBCTGAN, which aims to enhance the visual quality of the reconstructed images. In addition, we use superresolution methods as a preprocessing step in the task of interacting galaxy classification. Experimental results show that using DBCTGAN for preprocessing improves classification performance compared to other models, which further verifies its effectiveness in enhancing the quality of low-resolution images.
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series The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
spelling doaj-art-3389c4d7eff24953bc403e77ac51ed672025-08-20T03:25:57ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series0067-00492025-01-0127823510.3847/1538-4365/adca34Astronomical Image Superresolution Reconstruction with Deep Learning for Better Identification of Interacting GalaxiesJiawei Miao0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8135-6222Liangping Tu1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2439-0766Hao Liu2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8205-9211Jian Zhao3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8330-7205School of Electronic and Information Engineering, University of Science and Technology Liaoning , Anshan, 114044, People’s Republic of China ; jwmiao@ustl.edu.cn, tuliangping@ustl.edu.cnSchool of Electronic and Information Engineering, University of Science and Technology Liaoning , Anshan, 114044, People’s Republic of China ; jwmiao@ustl.edu.cn, tuliangping@ustl.edu.cn; School of Mathematics and Statistics, Minnan Normal University , Zhangzhou, 363000, People’s Republic of ChinaSchool of Science, University of Science and Technology Liaoning , Anshan, 114044, People’s Republic of China ; haoliu@ustl.edu.cn, zhao@ustl.edu.cnSchool of Science, University of Science and Technology Liaoning , Anshan, 114044, People’s Republic of China ; haoliu@ustl.edu.cn, zhao@ustl.edu.cnGalaxy–galaxy mergers are crucial in galaxy evolution, but the tidal features around galaxies are often faint, making it difficult to identify interacting or merging galaxies. High-resolution images of galaxies can identify fine structures within galaxies, which are essential for identifying and distinguishing different substructures within merging systems. However, due to observational and instrumental limitations, galaxy data is often collected at low resolution. To further improve visual quality and enhance the details of galaxy structures, we propose a dual-branch network structure combining convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and Transformer (DBCTNet), which leverages the local characteristics of CNNs to complement the global features of Transformer. We select four representative models for comparative experiments: Real-ESRGAN, SwinIR, Hybrid Attention Transformer, and EDAT. In the experiment, we adopt a two-stage training strategy. The results from the first stage show that DBCTNet improves the peak signal-to-noise ratio by 0.13, 0.19, 0.12, and 0.11, respectively, and achieves the highest structural similarity index value of 0.5578. In the second stage, we use DBCTNet, trained in the first stage as the generator, to train the galaxy image superresolution reconstruction model based on generative adversarial networks, DBCTGAN, which aims to enhance the visual quality of the reconstructed images. In addition, we use superresolution methods as a preprocessing step in the task of interacting galaxy classification. Experimental results show that using DBCTGAN for preprocessing improves classification performance compared to other models, which further verifies its effectiveness in enhancing the quality of low-resolution images.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/adca34GalaxiesGalaxy mergersInteracting galaxiesConvolutional neural networksGalaxy classification systemsGround-based astronomy
spellingShingle Jiawei Miao
Liangping Tu
Hao Liu
Jian Zhao
Astronomical Image Superresolution Reconstruction with Deep Learning for Better Identification of Interacting Galaxies
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Galaxies
Galaxy mergers
Interacting galaxies
Convolutional neural networks
Galaxy classification systems
Ground-based astronomy
title Astronomical Image Superresolution Reconstruction with Deep Learning for Better Identification of Interacting Galaxies
title_full Astronomical Image Superresolution Reconstruction with Deep Learning for Better Identification of Interacting Galaxies
title_fullStr Astronomical Image Superresolution Reconstruction with Deep Learning for Better Identification of Interacting Galaxies
title_full_unstemmed Astronomical Image Superresolution Reconstruction with Deep Learning for Better Identification of Interacting Galaxies
title_short Astronomical Image Superresolution Reconstruction with Deep Learning for Better Identification of Interacting Galaxies
title_sort astronomical image superresolution reconstruction with deep learning for better identification of interacting galaxies
topic Galaxies
Galaxy mergers
Interacting galaxies
Convolutional neural networks
Galaxy classification systems
Ground-based astronomy
url https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/adca34
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AT liangpingtu astronomicalimagesuperresolutionreconstructionwithdeeplearningforbetteridentificationofinteractinggalaxies
AT haoliu astronomicalimagesuperresolutionreconstructionwithdeeplearningforbetteridentificationofinteractinggalaxies
AT jianzhao astronomicalimagesuperresolutionreconstructionwithdeeplearningforbetteridentificationofinteractinggalaxies