Machine learning based data mining for Milky Way filamentary structures reconstruction
This is an incremental improvement for astronomers studying Galactic structures, potentially enhancing filament reconstruction.
The authors tackled the problem of reconstructing filamentary structures in the Milky Way by developing FilExSeC, a data mining tool that uses machine learning to refine shape reconstruction from column-density maps, showing reliability in bridging gaps among detected fragments.
We present an innovative method called FilExSeC (Filaments Extraction, Selection and Classification), a data mining tool developed to investigate the possibility to refine and optimize the shape reconstruction of filamentary structures detected with a consolidated method based on the flux derivative analysis, through the column-density maps computed from Herschel infrared Galactic Plane Survey (Hi-GAL) observations of the Galactic plane. The present methodology is based on a feature extraction module followed by a machine learning model (Random Forest) dedicated to select features and to classify the pixels of the input images. From tests on both simulations and real observations the method appears reliable and robust with respect to the variability of shape and distribution of filaments. In the cases of highly defined filament structures, the presented method is able to bridge the gaps among the detected fragments, thus improving their shape reconstruction. From a preliminary "a posteriori" analysis of derived filament physical parameters, the method appears potentially able to add a sufficient contribution to complete and refine the filament reconstruction.