Recurrence Quantification Analysis as a Post-processing Technique in Adaptive Optics High-contrast Imaging

Abstract

In this work we explore the possibility of using recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) in astronomical high-contrast imaging to statistically discriminate the signal of faint objects from speckle noise. To this end, we tested RQA on a sequence of high frame rate (1 kHz) images acquired with the SHARK-VIS forerunner at the Large Binocular Telescope. Our tests show promising results in terms of detection contrasts at angular separations as small as 50 mas, especially when RQA is applied to a very short sequence of data (2 s). These results are discussed in light of possible science applications and with respect to other techniques such as, for example, angular differential imaging and speckle-free imaging.