BBN, ADTree and MLP Comparison in Separating Quasars from Large Survey Catalogues

Abstract

We compare the performance of Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN), Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) networks and Alternating Decision Trees (ADtree) on separating quasars from stars with the database from the 2MASS and FIRST survey catalogs. Having a training sample of sources of known object types, the classifiers are trained to separate quasars from stars. By the statistical properties of the sample, the features important for classification are selected. We compare the classification results with and without feature selection. Experiments show that the results with feature selection are better than those without feature selection. From the high accuracy, it is concluded that these automated methods are robust and effective to classify point sources, moreover they all may be applied for large survey projects (e.g. selecting input catalogs) and for other astronomical issues, such as the parameter measurement of stars and the redshift estimation of galaxies and quasars.