Filtered backprojection 2026-10-14
The Radon transform records line integrals of a planar density. Apply the transverse Hilbert transform and a derivative to each projection, then average the filtered values over all lines through the reconstruction point. With , the filter has Fourier multiplier . The Fourier inversion theorem, or the jump of the complexified transport Cauchy kernel, proves the displayed formula. The factor is when directions are integrated over a half-circle. The growing Fourier multiplier explains amplification of measurement noise and the need for regularization of an inverse problem.
The distributional identity gives the Cauchy-Green operator solution
where is in the changed real coordinates. The singularity is locally integrable. For Schwartz functions, splitting the integral into a region near the origin and a rapidly decaying far region proves . If two solutions obey this decay, their difference has zero Wirtinger derivative and is an entire holomorphic function tending to zero; the Liouville theorem proves uniqueness.
The change-of-variables Jacobian has absolute value . Therefore an equivalent form of the complexified transport Cauchy kernel is
In the original complex coordinate , it is
For the denominator can be rewritten to give the kernel . For it is . Consequently the spectral solution is holomorphic separately inside and outside the unit circle, with at zero and at infinity. These normalizations will determine its jump reconstruction.
The two boundary values have jump
The line-tail contributions cancel. Because the complexified transport Cauchy kernel is holomorphic on both sides of the unit circle and vanishes at spectral infinity, the Cauchy integral formula reconstructs it from this jump:
There is no additional entire term: its inside and outside boundary values would agree, so it would define an entire function vanishing at infinity. Expand outside the circle as . Then
In the original coordinate , the transport equation is . Its constant term at infinity is . Since
we obtain the inverse Radon transform in filtered backprojection form:
Opposite directions represent the same unoriented line. Reversing by reverses ; the Hilbert transform changes sign under this reversal, and its derivative changes it back. Thus the integrand agrees for opposite directions and the factor becomes if the angular integral is over . With the convention , the Hilbert transform has Fourier multiplier ; the derivative makes the filter . This also identifies the formula with the standard ramp-filter reconstruction.
Keep the coordinates and operator from part (a). The attenuation is known, and the source is to be reconstructed. Put and . The directed forward attenuated Radon transform, for a detector at the positive end of the line, is
This weight accounts for absorption from each emission point to the detector. It is also derived by solving the real transport equation with zero incoming intensity: its outgoing limit is . In particular reversing the line direction generally changes the measurement. The pair reconstructs from full directed data and known ; it does not infer both unknown functions from the same data.
We must specify the sign convention for the projectors. Use the Hilbert transform and the signed Cauchy boundary operators
Then , and the positive idempotent projectors are and . This is the signed boundary-value convention in the given limits of . To express everything with ordinary complementary projectors, one may instead write , . The given limits become
Both depend on the transverse coordinate and direction but are constant along .
The equation supplies an integrating factor:
where is the inverse of unattenuated complex transport, normalized to vanish at spatial infinity. To see the normalization and analyticity rather than assume them, let . The complexified transport Cauchy kernel is
In the rotated coordinates, . The identity and the Jacobian prove with exactly this normalization. The denominator cannot vanish for nonzero real off the unit circle. The kernel is analytic separately inside and outside that circle, is at zero and at infinity. Thus and the displayed have the corresponding spectral behavior for the smooth decaying data. In particular at infinity and is bounded, indeed , at zero.
The limiting unattenuated inverse on any smooth decaying input is
One may verify this directly in the rotated Fourier variables: has multiplier , so its inverse has a pole at . As , the positive transverse frequencies have the negative tail primitive and the negative transverse frequencies have the positive past primitive; for these allocations reverse. Splitting with the Fourier projectors yields exactly the two formulas above. Applying them to reproduces the assumed limits of and checks the signs.
Now apply the same limiting inverse to . Because are independent of , its line integral is , while its tail is . Hence
The unknown incomplete line integral cancels in their difference. All remaining quantities are obtained from the measurements and known attenuation:
Each projection acts in at fixed , before evaluating and . Pulling a transverse-dependent exponential outside a projector would be incorrect.
The sectionally analytic therefore solves an additive Riemann-Hilbert problem on the counterclockwise unit circle, with the plus value inside. The normalized Cauchy integral formula is
The Sokhotski–Plemelj theorem gives its jump; boundedness at zero and decay at infinity make it unique by the Liouville theorem. Its expansion at infinity is
Substitute into the original equation. The part contributes at order one, the reciprocal derivative and vanish at that order. This derives the projection formula for inverse attenuated Radon transform:
Together with the boxed forward transform this is the requested pair. The derivation uses no small-attenuation approximation. For smooth compactly supported data the operations above are justified directly; sufficient integrable decay permits the same limiting construction.
As a normalization check, set . Then , and . Since the line transform is independent of and , the formula reduces to
the full-angle inverse Radon transform. For the radial Gaussian , and , so the reconstructed value at the origin is , checking the factor.
In single-photon emission computed tomography, represents the internal emission density, the known absorption coefficient and the directed detector counts. Each path integral weights a source point by its survival probability to the detector. Thus the attenuated Radon transform is the forward measurement model and its derived inverse reconstructs the emission distribution, providing the mathematical basis of SPECT.