Anti-aliasing with stratified B-spline filters of arbitrary degree

A simple and elegant method is presented to perform anti-aliasing in raytraced images. The method uses stratified sampling to reduce the occurrence of artefacts in an image and features a B-spline filter to compute the final luminous intensity at each pixel. The method is scalable through the specification of the filter degree. A B-spline filter of degree one amounts to a simple anti-aliasing scheme with box filtering. Increasing the degree of the B-spline generates progressively smoother filters. Computation of the filter values is done in a recursive way, as part of a sequence of Newton-Raphson iterations, to obtain the optimal sample positions in screen space. The proposed method can perform both anti-aliasing in space and in time, the latter being more commonly known as motion blur. We show an application of the method to the ray casting of implicit procedural surfaces

Linear scaling computation of the Fock matrix VII. Periodic Density Functional Theory at the Γ\Gamma-point

Linear scaling quantum chemical methods for Density Functional Theory are extended to the condensed phase at the $\Gamma$-point. For the two-electron Coulomb matrix, this is achieved with a tree-code algorithm for fast Coulomb summation [J. Chem. Phys. {\bf 106}, 5526 (1997)], together with multipole representation of the crystal field [J. Chem. Phys. {\bf 107}, 10131 (1997)]. A periodic version of the hierarchical cubature algorithm [J. Chem. Phys. {\bf 113}, 10037 (2000)], which builds a telescoping adaptive grid for numerical integration of the exchange-correlation matrix, is shown to be efficient when the problem is posed as integration over the unit cell. Commonalities between the Coulomb and exchange-correlation algorithms are discussed, with an emphasis on achieving linear scaling through the use of modern data structures. With these developments, convergence of the $\Gamma$-point supercell approximation to the ${\bf k}$-space integration limit is demonstrated for MgO and NaCl. Linear scaling construction of the Fockian and control of error is demonstrated for RBLYP/6-21G* diamond up to 512 atoms

Progressive Transient Photon Beams

In this work we introduce a novel algorithm for transient rendering in participating media. Our method is consistent, robust, and is able to generate animations of time-resolved light transport featuring complex caustic light paths in media. We base our method on the observation that the spatial continuity provides an increased coverage of the temporal domain, and generalize photon beams to transient-state. We extend the beam steady-state radiance estimates to include the temporal domain. Then, we develop a progressive version of spatio-temporal density estimations, that converges to the correct solution with finite memory requirements by iteratively averaging several realizations of independent renders with a progressively reduced kernel bandwidth. We derive the optimal convergence rates accounting for space and time kernels, and demonstrate our method against previous consistent transient rendering methods for participating media

Heavy Quark Physics in Nf=2 QCD

We present a preliminary analysis of the heavy-heavy spectrum and heavy-light decay constants in full QCD, using a tadpole-improved SW quark action and an RG-improved gauge action on a 16^3 x 32 lattice with four sea quark masses corresponding to m_pi/m_rho = 0.8, 0.75, 0.7, 0.6 and a^-1 = 1.3 GeV. We focus particularly on the effect of sea quarks on these observables.Comment: 3 pages Latex, 3 eps figures. Uses espcrc2.sty and epsf.sty . To appear in the Proceedings of Lattice 98 (Heavy Quarks

Hetero-Diels–Alder Cycloaddition with RAFT Polymers as Bioconjugation Platform

We introduce the bioconjugation of polymers synthesized by RAFT polymerization, bearing no specific functional end group, by means of hetero‐Diels–Alder cycloaddition through their inherent terminal thiocarbonylthio moiety with a diene‐modified model protein. Quantitative conjugation occurs over the course of a few hours, at ambient temperature and neutral pH, and in the absence of any catalyst. Our technology platform affords thermoresponsive bioconjugates, whose aggregation is solely controlled by the polymer chains

Hetero-Diels-Alder-Cycloaddition mit RAFT-Polymeren als Biokonjugationsplattform

Wir stellen die Biokonjugation von Polymeren vor, die durch RAFT‐Polymerisation mittels Hetero‐Diels‐Alder‐Cycloaddition durch ihren inhärenten terminalen Thiocarbonylthiorest mit einem dienmodifizierten Modellprotein synthetisiert wurden und keine spezifische funktionelle Endgruppe tragen. Die quantitative Konjugation erfolgt im Verlauf einiger Stunden bei Raumtemperatur und nahezu neutralem pH‐Wert und in Abwesenheit jeglichen Katalysators. Unsere Technologieplattform liefert thermoresponsive Biokonjugate, deren Aggregation allein durch die Polymerketten gesteuert wird

Sub-Doppler spectroscopy of Rb atoms in a sub-micron vapor cell in the presence of a magnetic field

We report the first use of an extremely thin vapor cell (thickness ~ 400 nm) to study the magnetic-field dependence of laser-induced-fluorescence excitation spectra of alkali atoms. This thin cell allows for sub-Doppler resolution without the complexity of atomic beam or laser cooling techniques. This technique is used to study the laser-induced-fluorescence excitation spectra of Rb in a 50 G magnetic field. At this field strength the electronic angular momentum J and nuclear angular momentum I are only partially decoupled. As a result of the mixing of wavefunctions of different hyperfine states, we observe a nonlinear Zeeman effect for each sublevel, a substantial modification of the transition probabilities between different magnetic sublevels, and the appearance of transitions that are strictly forbidden in the absence of the magnetic field. For the case of right- and left- handed circularly polarized laser excitation, the fluorescence spectra differs qualitatively. Well pronounced magnetic field induced circular dichroism is observed. These observations are explained with a standard approach that describes the partial decoupling of I and J states

Enhancing Perception of Complex Sculptural Forms using Interactive Real-time Ray tracing

This paper looks at experiments into using real-time ray tracing to significantly enhance shape perception of complex three-dimensional digitally created structures. The author is a computational artist whose artistic practice explores the creation of intricate organic three-dimensional forms using simulation of morphogenesis. The generated forms are often extremely detailed, comprising tens of millions of cellular primitives. This often makes depth perception of the resulting structures difficult. His practice has explored various techniques to create presentable artefacts from the data, including high resolution prints, animated videos, stereoscopic installations, 3D printing and virtual reality. The author uses ray tracing techniques to turn the 3D data created from his morphogenetic simulations into visible artefacts. This is typically a time-consuming process, taking from seconds to minutes to create a single frame. The latest generation of graphics processing units offer dedicated hardware to accelerate ray tracing calculations. This potentially allows the generation of ray traced images, including self-shadowed complex structures and multiple levels of transparency, from new viewpoints at frame rates capable of real-time interaction. The author presents the results of his experiments using this technology with the aim of providing significantly enhanced perception of his generated three-dimensional structures by allowing user-initiated interaction to generate novel views, and utilizing depth cues such as stereopsis, depth from motion and defocus blurring. The intention is for these techniques to be usable to present new exhibitable works in a gallery context