4,221 research outputs found
Multi-core computation of transfer matrices for strip lattices in the Potts model
The transfer-matrix technique is a convenient way for studying strip lattices
in the Potts model since the compu- tational costs depend just on the periodic
part of the lattice and not on the whole. However, even when the cost is
reduced, the transfer-matrix technique is still an NP-hard problem since the
time T(|V|, |E|) needed to compute the matrix grows ex- ponentially as a
function of the graph width. In this work, we present a parallel
transfer-matrix implementation that scales performance under multi-core
architectures. The construction of the matrix is based on several repetitions
of the deletion- contraction technique, allowing parallelism suitable to
multi-core machines. Our experimental results show that the multi-core
implementation achieves speedups of 3.7X with p = 4 processors and 5.7X with p
= 8. The efficiency of the implementation lies between 60% and 95%, achieving
the best balance of speedup and efficiency at p = 4 processors for actual
multi-core architectures. The algorithm also takes advantage of the lattice
symmetry, making the transfer matrix computation to run up to 2X faster than
its non-symmetric counterpart and use up to a quarter of the original space
Improvements on a simple muscle-based 3D face for realistic facial expressions
Facial expressions play an important role in face-to-face communication. With the development of personal computers capable of rendering high quality graphics, computer facial animation has produced more and more realistic facial expressions to enrich human-computer communication. In this paper, we present a simple muscle-based 3D face model that can produce realistic facial expressions in real time. We extend Waters' (1987) muscle model to generate bulges and wrinkles and to improve the combination of multiple muscle actions. In addition, we present techniques to reduce the computation burden on the muscle mode
Partitioning Complex Networks via Size-constrained Clustering
The most commonly used method to tackle the graph partitioning problem in
practice is the multilevel approach. During a coarsening phase, a multilevel
graph partitioning algorithm reduces the graph size by iteratively contracting
nodes and edges until the graph is small enough to be partitioned by some other
algorithm. A partition of the input graph is then constructed by successively
transferring the solution to the next finer graph and applying a local search
algorithm to improve the current solution.
In this paper, we describe a novel approach to partition graphs effectively
especially if the networks have a highly irregular structure. More precisely,
our algorithm provides graph coarsening by iteratively contracting
size-constrained clusterings that are computed using a label propagation
algorithm. The same algorithm that provides the size-constrained clusterings
can also be used during uncoarsening as a fast and simple local search
algorithm.
Depending on the algorithm's configuration, we are able to compute partitions
of very high quality outperforming all competitors, or partitions that are
comparable to the best competitor in terms of quality, hMetis, while being
nearly an order of magnitude faster on average. The fastest configuration
partitions the largest graph available to us with 3.3 billion edges using a
single machine in about ten minutes while cutting less than half of the edges
than the fastest competitor, kMetis
High-Quality Shared-Memory Graph Partitioning
Partitioning graphs into blocks of roughly equal size such that few edges run
between blocks is a frequently needed operation in processing graphs. Recently,
size, variety, and structural complexity of these networks has grown
dramatically. Unfortunately, previous approaches to parallel graph partitioning
have problems in this context since they often show a negative trade-off
between speed and quality. We present an approach to multi-level shared-memory
parallel graph partitioning that guarantees balanced solutions, shows high
speed-ups for a variety of large graphs and yields very good quality
independently of the number of cores used. For example, on 31 cores, our
algorithm partitions our largest test instance into 16 blocks cutting less than
half the number of edges than our main competitor when both algorithms are
given the same amount of time. Important ingredients include parallel label
propagation for both coarsening and improvement, parallel initial partitioning,
a simple yet effective approach to parallel localized local search, and fast
locality preserving hash tables
Numerical Simulations of the Dark Universe: State of the Art and the Next Decade
We present a review of the current state of the art of cosmological dark
matter simulations, with particular emphasis on the implications for dark
matter detection efforts and studies of dark energy. This review is intended
both for particle physicists, who may find the cosmological simulation
literature opaque or confusing, and for astro-physicists, who may not be
familiar with the role of simulations for observational and experimental probes
of dark matter and dark energy. Our work is complementary to the contribution
by M. Baldi in this issue, which focuses on the treatment of dark energy and
cosmic acceleration in dedicated N-body simulations. Truly massive dark
matter-only simulations are being conducted on national supercomputing centers,
employing from several billion to over half a trillion particles to simulate
the formation and evolution of cosmologically representative volumes (cosmic
scale) or to zoom in on individual halos (cluster and galactic scale). These
simulations cost millions of core-hours, require tens to hundreds of terabytes
of memory, and use up to petabytes of disk storage. The field is quite
internationally diverse, with top simulations having been run in China, France,
Germany, Korea, Spain, and the USA. Predictions from such simulations touch on
almost every aspect of dark matter and dark energy studies, and we give a
comprehensive overview of this connection. We also discuss the limitations of
the cold and collisionless DM-only approach, and describe in some detail
efforts to include different particle physics as well as baryonic physics in
cosmological galaxy formation simulations, including a discussion of recent
results highlighting how the distribution of dark matter in halos may be
altered. We end with an outlook for the next decade, presenting our view of how
the field can be expected to progress. (abridged)Comment: 54 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables; invited contribution to the special
issue "The next decade in Dark Matter and Dark Energy" of the new Open Access
journal "Physics of the Dark Universe". Replaced with accepted versio
Sparse Volumetric Deformation
Volume rendering is becoming increasingly popular as applications require realistic solid shape representations with seamless texture mapping and accurate filtering. However rendering sparse volumetric data is difficult because of the limited memory and processing capabilities of current hardware. To address these limitations, the volumetric information can be stored at progressive resolutions in the hierarchical branches of a tree structure, and sampled according to the region of interest. This means that only a partial region of the full dataset is processed, and therefore massive volumetric scenes can be rendered efficiently.
The problem with this approach is that it currently only supports static scenes. This is because it is difficult to accurately deform massive amounts of volume elements and reconstruct the scene hierarchy in real-time. Another problem is that deformation operations distort the shape where more than one volume element tries to occupy the same location, and similarly gaps occur where deformation stretches the elements further than one discrete location. It is also challenging to efficiently support sophisticated deformations at hierarchical resolutions, such as character skinning or physically based animation. These types of deformation are expensive and require a control structure (for example a cage or skeleton) that maps to a set of features to accelerate the deformation process. The problems with this technique are that the varying volume hierarchy reflects different feature sizes, and manipulating the features at the original resolution is too expensive; therefore the control structure must also hierarchically capture features according to the varying volumetric resolution.
This thesis investigates the area of deforming and rendering massive amounts of dynamic volumetric content. The proposed approach efficiently deforms hierarchical volume elements without introducing artifacts and supports both ray casting and rasterization renderers. This enables light transport to be modeled both accurately and efficiently with applications in the fields of real-time rendering and computer animation. Sophisticated volumetric deformation, including character animation, is also supported in real-time. This is achieved by automatically generating a control skeleton which is mapped to the varying feature resolution of the volume hierarchy. The output deformations are demonstrated in massive dynamic volumetric scenes
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