7,114 research outputs found
A Pseudopolynomial Algorithm for Alexandrov's Theorem
Alexandrov's Theorem states that every metric with the global topology and
local geometry required of a convex polyhedron is in fact the intrinsic metric
of a unique convex polyhedron. Recent work by Bobenko and Izmestiev describes a
differential equation whose solution leads to the polyhedron corresponding to a
given metric. We describe an algorithm based on this differential equation to
compute the polyhedron to arbitrary precision given the metric, and prove a
pseudopolynomial bound on its running time. Along the way, we develop
pseudopolynomial algorithms for computing shortest paths and weighted Delaunay
triangulations on a polyhedral surface, even when the surface edges are not
shortest paths.Comment: 25 pages; new Delaunay triangulation algorithm, minor other changes;
an abbreviated v2 was at WADS 200
Playing Billiard in Version Space
A ray-tracing method inspired by ergodic billiards is used to estimate the
theoretically best decision rule for a set of linear separable examples. While
the Bayes-optimum requires a majority decision over all Perceptrons separating
the example set, the problem considered here corresponds to finding the single
Perceptron with best average generalization probability. For randomly
distributed examples the billiard estimate agrees with known analytic results.
In real-life classification problems the generalization error is consistently
reduced compared to the maximal stability Perceptron.Comment: uuencoded, gzipped PostScript file, 127576 bytes To recover 1) save
file as bayes.uue. Then 2) uudecode bayes.uue and 3) gunzip bayes.ps.g
Gauss images of hyperbolic cusps with convex polyhedral boundary
We prove that a 3--dimensional hyperbolic cusp with convex polyhedral
boundary is uniquely determined by its Gauss image. Furthermore, any spherical
metric on the torus with cone singularities of negative curvature and all
closed contractible geodesics of length greater than is the metric of
the Gauss image of some convex polyhedral cusp. This result is an analog of the
Rivin-Hodgson theorem characterizing compact convex hyperbolic polyhedra in
terms of their Gauss images.
The proof uses a variational method. Namely, a cusp with a given Gauss image
is identified with a critical point of a functional on the space of cusps with
cone-type singularities along a family of half-lines. The functional is shown
to be concave and to attain maximum at an interior point of its domain. As a
byproduct, we prove rigidity statements with respect to the Gauss image for
cusps with or without cone-type singularities.
In a special case, our theorem is equivalent to existence of a circle pattern
on the torus, with prescribed combinatorics and intersection angles. This is
the genus one case of a theorem by Thurston. In fact, our theorem extends
Thurston's theorem in the same way as Rivin-Hodgson's theorem extends Andreev's
theorem on compact convex polyhedra with non-obtuse dihedral angles.
The functional used in the proof is the sum of a volume term and curvature
term. We show that, in the situation of Thurston's theorem, it is the potential
for the combinatorial Ricci flow considered by Chow and Luo.
Our theorem represents the last special case of a general statement about
isometric immersions of compact surfaces.Comment: 55 pages, 17 figure
Weighted Sobolev spaces and regularity for polyhedral domains
We prove a regularity result for the Poisson problem , u
|\_{\pa \PP} = g on a polyhedral domain \PP \subset \RR^3 using the \BK\
spaces \Kond{m}{a}(\PP). These are weighted Sobolev spaces in which the
weight is given by the distance to the set of edges \cite{Babu70,
Kondratiev67}. In particular, we show that there is no loss of
\Kond{m}{a}--regularity for solutions of strongly elliptic systems with
smooth coefficients. We also establish a "trace theorem" for the restriction to
the boundary of the functions in \Kond{m}{a}(\PP)
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