Perturbation of the Eigenvectors of the Graph Laplacian: Application to Image Denoising

The original contributions of this paper are twofold: a new understanding of the influence of noise on the eigenvectors of the graph Laplacian of a set of image patches, and an algorithm to estimate a denoised set of patches from a noisy image. The algorithm relies on the following two observations: (1) the low-index eigenvectors of the diffusion, or graph Laplacian, operators are very robust to random perturbations of the weights and random changes in the connections of the patch-graph; and (2) patches extracted from smooth regions of the image are organized along smooth low-dimensional structures in the patch-set, and therefore can be reconstructed with few eigenvectors. Experiments demonstrate that our denoising algorithm outperforms the denoising gold-standards

Statistical Mechanics of a Cat's Cradle

It is believed that, much like a cat's cradle, the cytoskeleton can be thought of as a network of strings under tension. We show that both regular and random bond-disordered networks having bonds that buckle upon compression exhibit a variety of phase transitions as a function of temperature and extension. The results of self-consistent phonon calculations for the regular networks agree very well with computer simulations at finite temperature. The analytic theory also yields a rigidity onset (mechanical percolation) and the fraction of extended bonds for random networks. There is very good agreement with the simulations by Delaney et al. (Europhys. Lett. 2005). The mean field theory reveals a nontranslationally invariant phase with self-generated heterogeneity of tautness, representing ``antiferroelasticity''.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Spin current swapping and Hanle spin Hall effect in the two dimensional electron gas

We analyze the effect known as "spin current swapping" (SCS) due to electron-impurity scattering in a uniform spin-polarized two-dimensional electron gas. In this effect a primary spin current $J_i^a$ (lower index for spatial direction, upper index for spin direction) generates a secondary spin current $J_a^i$ if $i \neq a$, or $J_j^j$, with $j\ne i$, if $i= a$. Contrary to naive expectation, the homogeneous spin current associated with the uniform drift of the spin polarization in the electron gas does not generate a swapped spin current by the SCS mechanism. Nevertheless, a swapped spin current will be generated, if a magnetic field is present, by a completely different mechanism, namely, the precession of the spin Hall spin current in the magnetic field. We refer to this second mechanism as Hanle spin Hall effect, and we notice that it can be observed in an experiment in which a homogeneous drift current is passed through a uniformly magnetized electron gas. In contrast to this, we show that an unambiguous observation of SCS requires inhomogeneous spin currents, such as those that are associated with spin diffusion in a metal, and no magnetic field. An experimental setup for the observation of the SCS is therefore proposed.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Error-constrained filtering for a class of nonlinear time-varying delay systems with non-gaussian noises

Copyright [2010] IEEE. This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of Brunel University's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to [email protected]. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.In this technical note, the quadratic error-constrained filtering problem is formulated and investigated for discrete time-varying nonlinear systems with state delays and non-Gaussian noises. Both the Lipschitz-like and ellipsoid-bounded nonlinearities are considered. The non-Gaussian noises are assumed to be unknown, bounded, and confined to specified ellipsoidal sets. The aim of the addressed filtering problem is to develop a recursive algorithm based on the semi-definite programme method such that, for the admissible time-delays, nonlinear parameters and external bounded noise disturbances, the quadratic estimation error is not more than a certain optimized upper bound at every time step. The filter parameters are characterized in terms of the solution to a convex optimization problem that can be easily solved by using the semi-definite programme method. A simulation example is exploited to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed design procedures.This work was supported in part by the Leverhulme Trust of the U.K., the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of the U.K. under Grant GR/S27658/01, the Royal Society of the U.K., the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61028008 and Grant 61074016, the Shanghai Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 10ZR1421200, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany. Recommended by Associate Editor E. Fabre

Sensitivity of neutron radii in the ""sup208Pbnucleusandaneutronstartonucleon−"" sup 208_Pb nucleus and a neutron star to nucleon- sigma_-$ rho_ coupling corrections in relativistic mean field theory

We study the sensitivity of the neutron skin thickness, $S$, in a $^{208}$Pb nucleus to the addition of nucleon-sigma-rho coupling corrections to a selection (PK1, NL3, S271, Z271) of interactions in relativistic mean field model. The PK1 and NL3 effective interactions lead to a minimum value of $S$ = 0.16 fm in comparison with the original value of $S$ = 0.28 fm. The S271 and Z271 effective interactions yield even smaller values of $S$ = 0.11 fm, which are similar to those for nonrelativistic mean field models. A precise measurement of the neutron radius, and therefore $S$, in $^{208}$Pb will place an important constraint on both relativistic and nonrelativistic mean field models. We also study the correlation between the radius of a 1.4 solar-mass neutron star and $S$.Comment: 40 pages 13 figures. to be published in Physical Review