Recurrent Pixel Embedding for Instance Grouping

We introduce a differentiable, end-to-end trainable framework for solving pixel-level grouping problems such as instance segmentation consisting of two novel components. First, we regress pixels into a hyper-spherical embedding space so that pixels from the same group have high cosine similarity while those from different groups have similarity below a specified margin. We analyze the choice of embedding dimension and margin, relating them to theoretical results on the problem of distributing points uniformly on the sphere. Second, to group instances, we utilize a variant of mean-shift clustering, implemented as a recurrent neural network parameterized by kernel bandwidth. This recurrent grouping module is differentiable, enjoys convergent dynamics and probabilistic interpretability. Backpropagating the group-weighted loss through this module allows learning to focus on only correcting embedding errors that won't be resolved during subsequent clustering. Our framework, while conceptually simple and theoretically abundant, is also practically effective and computationally efficient. We demonstrate substantial improvements over state-of-the-art instance segmentation for object proposal generation, as well as demonstrating the benefits of grouping loss for classification tasks such as boundary detection and semantic segmentation

Toric varieties and spherical embeddings over an arbitrary field

We are interested in two classes of varieties with group action, namely toric varieties and spherical embeddings. They are classified by combinatorial objects, called fans in the toric setting, and colored fans in the spherical setting. We characterize those combinatorial objects corresponding to varieties defined over an arbitrary field $k$. Then we provide some situations where toric varieties over $k$ are classified by Galois-stable fans, and spherical embeddings over $k$ by Galois-stable colored fans. Moreover, we construct an example of a smooth toric variety under a 3-dimensional nonsplit torus over $k$ whose fan is Galois-stable but which admits no $k$-form. In the spherical setting, we offer an example of a spherical homogeneous space $X_0$ over \mr of rank 2 under the action of SU(2,1) and a smooth embedding of $X_0$ whose fan is Galois-stable but which admits no \mr-form

Classification of Reductive Monoid Spaces Over an Arbitrary Field

In this semi-expository paper we review the notion of a spherical space. In particular we present some recent results of Wedhorn on the classification of spherical spaces over arbitrary fields. As an application, we introduce and classify reductive monoid spaces over an arbitrary field.Comment: This is the final versio

Demazure roots and spherical varieties: the example of horizontal SL(2)-actions

Let $G$ be a connected reductive group, and let $X$ be an affine $G$-spherical variety. We show that the classification of $\mathbb{G}_{a}$-actions on $X$ normalized by $G$ can be reduced to the description of quasi-affine homogeneous spaces under the action of a semi-direct product $\mathbb{G}_{a}\rtimes G$ with the following property. The induced $G$-action is spherical and the complement of the open orbit is either empty or a $G$-orbit of codimension one. These homogeneous spaces are parametrized by a subset ${\rm Rt}(X)$ of the character lattice $\mathbb{X}(G)$ of $G$, which we call the set of Demazure roots of $X$. We give a complete description of the set ${\rm Rt}(X)$ when $G$ is a semi-direct product of ${\rm SL}_{2}$ and an algebraic torus; we show particularly that ${\rm Rt}(X)$ can be obtained explicitly as the intersection of a finite union of polyhedra in $\mathbb{Q}\otimes_{\mathbb{Z}}\mathbb{X}(G)$ and a sublattice of $\mathbb{X}(G)$. We conjecture that ${\rm Rt}(X)$ can be described in a similar combinatorial way for an arbitrary affine spherical variety $X$.Comment: Added Section 4; modified main result, Theorem 5.18 now; other change

A combinatorial smoothness criterion for spherical varieties

We suggest a combinatorial criterion for the smoothness of an arbitrary spherical variety using the classification of multiplicity-free spaces, generalizing an earlier result of Camus for spherical varieties of type $A$.Comment: 14 pages, 2 table