An Optimized Ly$\alpha$ Forest Inversion Tool Based on a Quantitative Comparison of Existing Reconstruction Methods

Understand

We present a same-level comparison of the most prominent inversion methods for the reconstruction of the matter density field in the quasi-linear regime from the Ly$\alpha$ forest flux.

• Moreover, we present a pathway for refining the reconstruction in the framework of numerical optimization.
• We apply this approach to construct a novel hybrid method.
• The methods which are used so far for matter reconstructions are the Richardson-Lucy algorithm, an iterative Gauss-Newton method and a statistical approach assuming a one-to-one correspondence between matter and flux.