WIENER RECONSTRUCTION OF THE LARGE-SCALE STRUCTURE

The formalism of Wiener filtering is developed here for the purpose of reconstructing the large-scale structure of the universe from noisy, sparse, and incomplete data. The method is based on a linear minimum v ariance solution, given data and an assumed prior model which specifie s the covariance matrix of the held to be reconstructed While earlier applications of the Wiener filer have focused on estimation, namely su ppressing the noise in the measured quantities, we extend the method h ere to perform both prediction and dynamical reconstruction. The Wiene r filter is used to predict the values of unmeasured quantities, such as the density held in unsampled regions of space, or to deconvolve bl urred data The method is developed, within the context of linear gravi tational instability theory, to perform dynamical reconstruction of on e held which is dynamically related to some other observed held. This is the case, for example, in the reconstruction of the real space gala xy distribution from its redshift distribution or the prediction of th e radial velocity held from the observed density field. When the field to be reconstructed is a Gaussian random held, such as the primordial perturbation field predicted by the canonical model of cosmology, the Wiener filter can be pushed to its fullest potential. In such a case the Wiener estimator coincides with the Bayesian estimator designed to maximize the posterior probability. The Wiener filter can be also der ived by assuming a quadratic regularization function, in analogy with the ''maximum entropy'' method. The mean field obtained by the minimal variance solution can be supplemented with constrained realizations o f the Gaussian held to create random recitations of the residual from the mean.