Analysis of iterative deblurring: no explicit noise

Abstract Iterative deblurring, notably the Richardson–Lucy algorithm with and without regularization, is analyzed in the context of nuclear and high-energy physics applications. In these applications, probability distributions may be discretized into a few bins, measurement statistics can be high, and instrument performance can be well understood. In such circumstances, it is essential to understand the deblurring first without any explicit noise considerations. We employ singular value decomposition for the blurring matrix in a low-count pixel system. A strong blurring may yield a null space for the blurring matrix. Yet, a nonnegativity constraint for images built into the deblurring may help restore null-space content in a high-contrast image with zero or low intensity for a sufficient number of pixels. For low-contrast images, control over null-space content can be achieved through regularization. When regularization is applied, the blurred image is, in practice, restored to one that is still blurred but less than the starting image.