2D vector field simplification based on robustness

pre-printVector field simplification aims to reduce the complexity of the flow by removing features in order of their relevance and importance, to reveal prominent behavior and obtain a compact representation for interpretation. Most existing simplification techniques based on the topological skeleton successively remove pairs of critical points connected by separatrices, using distance or area-based relevance measures. These methods rely on the stable extraction of the topological skeleton, which can be difficult due to instability in numerical integration, especially when processing highly rotational flows. These geometric metrics do not consider the flow magnitude, an important physical property of the flow. In this paper, we propose a novel simplification scheme derived from the recently introduced topological notion of robustness, which provides a complementary view on flow structure compared to the traditional topological-skeleton-based approaches. Robustness enables the pruning of sets of critical points according to a quantitative measure of their stability, that is, the minimum amount of vector field perturbation required to remove them. This leads to a hierarchical simplification scheme that encodes flow magnitude in its perturbation metric. Our novel simplification algorithm is based on degree theory, has fewer boundary restrictions, and so can handle more general cases. Finally, we provide an implementation under the piecewise-linear setting and apply it to both synthetic and real-world datasets

LIPIcs

The concept of well group in a special but important case captures homological properties of the zero set of a continuous map f from K to R^n on a compact space K that are invariant with respect to perturbations of f. The perturbations are arbitrary continuous maps within L_infty distance r from f for a given r > 0. The main drawback of the approach is that the computability of well groups was shown only when dim K = n or n = 1. Our contribution to the theory of well groups is twofold: on the one hand we improve on the computability issue, but on the other hand we present a range of examples where the well groups are incomplete invariants, that is, fail to capture certain important robust properties of the zero set. For the first part, we identify a computable subgroup of the well group that is obtained by cap product with the pullback of the orientation of R^n by f. In other words, well groups can be algorithmically approximated from below. When f is smooth and dim K < 2n-2, our approximation of the (dim K-n)th well group is exact. For the second part, we find examples of maps f, f' from K to R^n with all well groups isomorphic but whose perturbations have different zero sets. We discuss on a possible replacement of the well groups of vector valued maps by an invariant of a better descriptive power and computability status

On Computability and Triviality of Well Groups

The concept of well group in a special but important case captures homological properties of the zero set of a continuous map $f:K\to R^n$ on a compact space K that are invariant with respect to perturbations of f. The perturbations are arbitrary continuous maps within $L_\infty$ distance r from f for a given r>0. The main drawback of the approach is that the computability of well groups was shown only when dim K=n or n=1. Our contribution to the theory of well groups is twofold: on the one hand we improve on the computability issue, but on the other hand we present a range of examples where the well groups are incomplete invariants, that is, fail to capture certain important robust properties of the zero set. For the first part, we identify a computable subgroup of the well group that is obtained by cap product with the pullback of the orientation of R^n by f. In other words, well groups can be algorithmically approximated from below. When f is smooth and dim K<2n-2, our approximation of the (dim K-n)th well group is exact. For the second part, we find examples of maps $f,f': K\to R^n$ with all well groups isomorphic but whose perturbations have different zero sets. We discuss on a possible replacement of the well groups of vector valued maps by an invariant of a better descriptive power and computability status.Comment: 20 pages main paper including bibliography, followed by 22 pages of Appendi