Joint reconstruction of multi-channel, spectral CT data via constrained total nuclear variation minimization

We explore the use of the recently proposed 'total nuclear variation' (TV_N) as a regularizer for reconstructing multi-channel, spectral CT images. This convex penalty is a natural extension of the total variation (TV) to vector-valued images and has the advantage of encouraging common edge locations and a shared gradient direction among image channels. We show how it can be incorporated into a general, data-constrained reconstruction framework and derive update equations based on the first-order, primal-dual algorithm of Chambolle and Pock. Early simulation studies based on the numerical XCAT phantom indicate that the inter-channel coupling introduced by the TV_N leads to better preservation of image features at high levels of regularization, compared to independent, channel-by-channel TV reconstructions. (paper)