Topological Structures on DMC spaces

Two channels are said to be equivalent if they are degraded from each other. The space of equivalent channels with input alphabet $X$ and output alphabet $Y$ can be naturally endowed with the quotient of the Euclidean topology by the equivalence relation. A topology on the space of equivalent channels with fixed input alphabet $X$ and arbitrary but finite output alphabet is said to be natural if and only if it induces the quotient topology on the subspaces of equivalent channels sharing the same output alphabet. We show that every natural topology is $\sigma$-compact, separable and path-connected. On the other hand, if $|X|\geq 2$, a Hausdorff natural topology is not Baire and it is not locally compact anywhere. This implies that no natural topology can be completely metrized if $|X|\geq 2$. The finest natural topology, which we call the strong topology, is shown to be compactly generated, sequential and $T_4$. On the other hand, the strong topology is not first-countable anywhere, hence it is not metrizable. We show that in the strong topology, a subspace is compact if and only if it is rank-bounded and strongly-closed. We introduce a metric distance on the space of equivalent channels which compares the noise levels between channels. The induced metric topology, which we call the noisiness topology, is shown to be natural. We also study topologies that are inherited from the space of meta-probability measures by identifying channels with their Blackwell measures. We show that the weak-* topology is exactly the same as the noisiness topology and hence it is natural. We prove that if $|X|\geq 2$, the total variation topology is not natural nor Baire, hence it is not completely metrizable. Moreover, it is not locally compact anywhere. Finally, we show that the Borel $\sigma$-algebra is the same for all Hausdorff natural topologies.Comment: 43 pages, submitted to IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory and in part to ISIT201

The persistent cosmic web and its filamentary structure I: Theory and implementation

We present DisPerSE, a novel approach to the coherent multi-scale identification of all types of astrophysical structures, and in particular the filaments, in the large scale distribution of matter in the Universe. This method and corresponding piece of software allows a genuinely scale free and parameter free identification of the voids, walls, filaments, clusters and their configuration within the cosmic web, directly from the discrete distribution of particles in N-body simulations or galaxies in sparse observational catalogues. To achieve that goal, the method works directly over the Delaunay tessellation of the discrete sample and uses the DTFE density computed at each tracer particle; no further sampling, smoothing or processing of the density field is required. The idea is based on recent advances in distinct sub-domains of computational topology, which allows a rigorous application of topological principles to astrophysical data sets, taking into account uncertainties and Poisson noise. Practically, the user can define a given persistence level in terms of robustness with respect to noise (defined as a "number of sigmas") and the algorithm returns the structures with the corresponding significance as sets of critical points, lines, surfaces and volumes corresponding to the clusters, filaments, walls and voids; filaments, connected at cluster nodes, crawling along the edges of walls bounding the voids. The method is also interesting as it allows for a robust quantification of the topological properties of a discrete distribution in terms of Betti numbers or Euler characteristics, without having to resort to smoothing or having to define a particular scale. In this paper, we introduce the necessary mathematical background and describe the method and implementation, while we address the application to 3D simulated and observed data sets to the companion paper.Comment: A higher resolution version is available at http://www.iap.fr/users/sousbie together with complementary material. Submitted to MNRA

Continuity of Channel Parameters and Operations under Various DMC Topologies

We study the continuity of many channel parameters and operations under various topologies on the space of equivalent discrete memoryless channels (DMC). We show that mutual information, channel capacity, Bhattacharyya parameter, probability of error of a fixed code, and optimal probability of error for a given code rate and blocklength, are continuous under various DMC topologies. We also show that channel operations such as sums, products, interpolations, and Ar{\i}kan-style transformations are continuous.Comment: 31 pages. Submitted to IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory and in part to ISIT201

A Characterization of the Shannon Ordering of Communication Channels

The ordering of communication channels was first introduced by Shannon. In this paper, we aim to find a characterization of the Shannon ordering. We show that $W'$ contains $W$ if and only if $W$ is the skew-composition of $W'$ with a convex-product channel. This fact is used to derive a characterization of the Shannon ordering that is similar to the Blackwell-Sherman-Stein theorem. Two channels are said to be Shannon-equivalent if each one is contained in the other. We investigate the topologies that can be constructed on the space of Shannon-equivalent channels. We introduce the strong topology and the BRM metric on this space. Finally, we study the continuity of a few channel parameters and operations under the strong topology.Comment: 23 pages, presented in part at ISIT'17. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1702.0072

Pivotal tricategories and a categorification of inner-product modules

This article investigates duals for bimodule categories over finite tensor categories. We show that finite bimodule categories form a tricategory and discuss the dualities in this tricategory using inner homs. We consider inner-product bimodule categories over pivotal tensor categories with additional structure on the inner homs. Inner-product module categories are related to Frobenius algebras and lead to the notion of $*$-Morita equivalence for pivotal tensor categories. We show that inner-product bimodule categories form a tricategory with two duality operations and an additional pivotal structure. This is work is motivated by defects in topological field theories.Comment: 64 pages, comments are welcom

On the Input-Degradedness and Input-Equivalence Between Channels

A channel $W$ is said to be input-degraded from another channel $W'$ if $W$ can be simulated from $W'$ by randomization at the input. We provide a necessary and sufficient condition for a channel to be input-degraded from another one. We show that any decoder that is good for $W'$ is also good for $W$. We provide two characterizations for input-degradedness, one of which is similar to the Blackwell-Sherman-Stein theorem. We say that two channels are input-equivalent if they are input-degraded from each other. We study the topologies that can be constructed on the space of input-equivalent channels, and we investigate their properties. Moreover, we study the continuity of several channel parameters and operations under these topologies.Comment: 30 pages. Submitted to IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory and in part to ISIT2017. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1701.0446

Algebraic Structures in Euclidean and Minkowskian Two-Dimensional Conformal Field Theory

We review how modular categories, and commutative and non-commutative Frobenius algebras arise in rational conformal field theory. For Euclidean CFT we use an approach based on sewing of surfaces, and in the Minkowskian case we describe CFT by a net of operator algebras.Comment: 21 pages, contribution to proceedings for "Non-commutative Structures in Mathematics and Physics" (Brussels, July 2008