Analysis versus synthesis in signal priors

The concept of prior probability for signals plays a key role in the successful solution of many inverse problems. Much of the literature on this topic can be divided between analysis-based and synthesis-based priors. Analysis-based priors assign probability to a signal through various forward measurements of it, while synthesis-based priors seek a reconstruction of the signal as a combination of atom signals. The algebraic similarity between the two suggests that they could be strongly related; however, in the absence of a detailed study, contradicting approaches have emerged. While the computationally intensive synthesis approach is receiving ever-increasing attention and is notably preferred, other works…