LDSO: Direct Sparse Odometry with Loop Closure

In this paper we present an extension of Direct Sparse Odometry (DSO) to a monocular visual SLAM system with loop closure detection and pose-graph optimization (LDSO). As a direct technique, DSO can utilize any image pixel with sufficient intensity gradient, which makes it robust even in featureless areas. LDSO retains this robustness, while at the same time ensuring repeatability of some of these points by favoring corner features in the tracking frontend. This repeatability allows to reliably detect loop closure candidates with a conventional feature-based bag-of-words (BoW) approach. Loop closure candidates are verified geometrically and Sim(3) relative pose constraints are estimated by jointly minimizing 2D and 3D geometric error terms. These constraints are fused with a co-visibility graph of relative poses extracted from DSO's sliding window optimization. Our evaluation on publicly available datasets demonstrates that the modified point selection strategy retains the tracking accuracy and robustness, and the integrated pose-graph optimization significantly reduces the accumulated rotation-, translation- and scale-drift, resulting in an overall performance comparable to state-of-the-art feature-based systems, even without global bundle adjustment

Electronic structures and magnetic orders of Fe-vacancies ordered ternary iron selenides TlFe1.5_{1.5}Se2_2 and AFe1.5_{1.5}Se2_2 (A=K, Rb, or Cs)

By the first-principles electronic structure calculations, we find that the ground state of the Fe-vacancies ordered TlFe$_{1.5}$Se$_2$ is a quasi-two-dimensional collinear antiferromagnetic semiconductor with an energy gap of 94 meV, in agreement with experimental measurements. This antiferromagnetic order is driven by the Se-bridged antiferromagnetic superexchange interactions between Fe moments. Similarly, we find that crystals AFe$_{1.5}$Se$_2$ (A=K, Rb, or Cs) are also antiferromagnetic semiconductors but with a zero-gap semiconducting state or semimetallic state nearly degenerated with the ground states. Thus rich physical properties and phase diagrams are expected.Comment: Add results about AFe$_{1.5}$Se$_2$ (A=K, Rb, or Cs);4 pages and 7 figure

Jet-cloud/star interaction as an interpretation of neutrino outburst from the blazar TXS 0506+056

Recently, a high-energy neutrino event IceCube-170922A in the spatial and temporal coincidence with the flaring gamma-ray blazar TXS 0506+056 was reported. A neutrino outburst between September 2014 and March 2015 was discovered in the same direction by a further investigation of $9.5$ years of IceCube data, while the blazar is in a quiescent state during the outburst with a gamma-ray flux only about one-fifth of the neutrino flux. In this letter, we propose the neutrino outburst originates from the interaction between a relativistic jet and a dense gas cloud which may be formed via the tidally disrupted envelope of a red giant being blown by the impact of the jet. Gamma-ray photons and electron/positron pairs that are produced correspondingly will induce electromagnetic cascades. Comptonization of the cascade emission inside the cloud forms an X-ray photon field with Wien distribution. GeV flux is suppressed due to the absorption by the Comptonized photon field and, as a result, a hard spectrum above 10 GeV is formed. The gamma-ray spectrum predicted in our model is consistent with the Fermi-LAT data of TXS 0506+056.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

A theoretic model for sonogenetic antiarrhythmia

Sonogenetics can be used as a new alternative for treating arrhythmia due to its advantages of noninvasive, high safety and strong penetration. In the treatment of arrhythmias by sonogenetics, cardiac myocytes are deformed by ultrasonic radiation force. We quantitatively calculated the shape variation of cardiomyocytes under ultrasonic radiation force, and the deformation of cardiomyocytes caused the change of membrane tension. Membrane tension consists of two parts, plasma membrane tension and cortical tension between the cell membrane and cytoskeleton. Since plasma membrane tension was mainly considered in existing experiments, we proposed a quantitative model of the relationship between ultrasonic radiation force and plasma membrane tension. The Boltzmann relationship between plasma membrane tension and ion channel opening probability is presented based on the experimental results of ion channel activation by stretching. Finally, a quantitative model was obtained for ultrasonic radiation force to regulate the opening probability of ion channel activated by stretching. Based on this quantitative model, we proposed the regulation mechanism of ultrasonic radiation force under hypercompression and hyperstretching, and verified that this mechanism can eliminate arrhythmias by sonogenetics.Comment: 13pages,5 figure