Discrete Differential Geometry
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Discrete Differential Geometry
Discrete differential geometry is the study of discrete counterparts of notions in differential geometry. Instead of smooth curves and surfaces, there are polygons, meshes, and simplicial complexes. It is used in the study of computer graphics, geometry processing and topological combinatorics. See also *Discrete Laplace operator *Discrete exterior calculus *Discrete Morse theory *Topological combinatorics *Spectral shape analysis * Abstract differential geometry *Analysis on fractals *Discrete calculus Discrete calculus or the calculus of discrete functions, is the mathematical study of ''incremental'' change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithmetic operations. The word ''ca ... ReferencesDiscrete differential geometry Forum* * * Alexander I. Bobenko, Yuri B. Suris (2008), "Discrete Differential Geometry", American Mathematical Society, Differential geometry Simplicial sets {{differential-geomet ...
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Differential Geometry
Differential geometry is a mathematical discipline that studies the geometry of smooth shapes and smooth spaces, otherwise known as smooth manifolds. It uses the techniques of differential calculus, integral calculus, linear algebra and multilinear algebra. The field has its origins in the study of spherical geometry as far back as antiquity. It also relates to astronomy, the geodesy of the Earth, and later the study of hyperbolic geometry by Lobachevsky. The simplest examples of smooth spaces are the plane and space curves and surfaces in the three-dimensional Euclidean space, and the study of these shapes formed the basis for development of modern differential geometry during the 18th and 19th centuries. Since the late 19th century, differential geometry has grown into a field concerned more generally with geometric structures on differentiable manifolds. A geometric structure is one which defines some notion of size, distance, shape, volume, or other rigidifying structu ...
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Polygon
In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two together, may be called a polygon. The segments of a polygonal circuit are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon's '' vertices'' (singular: vertex) or ''corners''. The interior of a solid polygon is sometimes called its ''body''. An ''n''-gon is a polygon with ''n'' sides; for example, a triangle is a 3-gon. A simple polygon is one which does not intersect itself. Mathematicians are often concerned only with the bounding polygonal chains of simple polygons and they often define a polygon accordingly. A polygonal boundary may be allowed to cross over itself, creating star polygons and other self-intersecting polygons. A polygon is a 2-dimensional example of the more general polytope in any number ...
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Polygon Mesh
In 3D computer graphics and solid modeling, a polygon mesh is a collection of , s and s that defines the shape of a polyhedral object. The faces usually consist of triangles (triangle mesh), quadrilaterals (quads), or other simple convex polygons ( n-gons), since this simplifies rendering, but may also be more generally composed of concave polygons, or even polygons with holes. The study of polygon meshes is a large sub-field of computer graphics (specifically 3D computer graphics) and geometric modeling. Different representations of polygon meshes are used for different applications and goals. The variety of operations performed on meshes may include: Boolean logic ( Constructive solid geometry), smoothing, simplification, and many others. Algorithms also exist for ray tracing, collision detection, and rigid-body dynamics with polygon meshes. If the mesh's edges are rendered instead of the faces, then the model becomes a wireframe model. Volumetric meshes are distinct f ...
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Simplicial Complexes
In mathematics, a simplicial complex is a set composed of points, line segments, triangles, and their ''n''-dimensional counterparts (see illustration). Simplicial complexes should not be confused with the more abstract notion of a simplicial set appearing in modern simplicial homotopy theory. The purely combinatorial counterpart to a simplicial complex is an abstract simplicial complex. To distinguish a simplicial from an abstract simplicial complex, the former is often called a geometric simplicial complex.'', Section 4.3'' Definitions A simplicial complex \mathcal is a set of simplices that satisfies the following conditions: :1. Every face of a simplex from \mathcal is also in \mathcal. :2. The non-empty intersection of any two simplices \sigma_1, \sigma_2 \in \mathcal is a face of both \sigma_1 and \sigma_2. See also the definition of an abstract simplicial complex, which loosely speaking is a simplicial complex without an associated geometry. A simplicial ''k''-complex \ma ...
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Computer Graphics
Computer graphics deals with generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great deal of specialized hardware and software has been developed, with the displays of most devices being driven by computer graphics hardware. It is a vast and recently developed area of computer science. The phrase was coined in 1960 by computer graphics researchers Verne Hudson and William Fetter of Boeing. It is often abbreviated as CG, or typically in the context of film as computer generated imagery (CGI). The non-artistic aspects of computer graphics are the subject of computer science research. Some topics in computer graphics include user interface design, sprite graphics, rendering, ray tracing, geometry processing, computer animation, vector graphics, 3D modeling, shaders, GPU design, implicit surfaces, visualization, scientific c ...
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Geometry Processing
Geometry processing, or mesh processing, is an area of research that uses concepts from applied mathematics, computer science and engineering to design efficient algorithms for the acquisition, reconstruction, analysis, manipulation, simulation and transmission of complex 3D models. As the name implies, many of the concepts, data structures, and algorithms are directly analogous to signal processing and image processing. For example, where image smoothing might convolve an intensity signal with a blur kernel formed using the Laplace operator, geometric smoothing might be achieved by convolving a surface geometry with a blur kernel formed using the Laplace-Beltrami operator. Applications of geometry processing algorithms already cover a wide range of areas from multimedia, entertainment and classical computer-aided design, to biomedical computing, reverse engineering, and scientific computing. Geometry processing is a common research topic at SIGGRAPH, the premier comp ...
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Topological Combinatorics
The mathematical discipline of topological combinatorics is the application of topological and algebro-topological methods to solving problems in combinatorics. History The discipline of combinatorial topology used combinatorial concepts in topology and in the early 20th century this turned into the field of algebraic topology. In 1978 the situation was reversed—methods from algebraic topology were used to solve a problem in combinatorics—when László Lovász proved the Kneser conjecture, thus beginning the new field of topological combinatorics. Lovász's proof used the Borsuk–Ulam theorem and this theorem retains a prominent role in this new field. This theorem has many equivalent versions and analogs and has been used in the study of fair division problems. In another application of homological methods to graph theory, Lovász proved both the undirected and directed versions of a conjecture of András Frank: Given a ''k''-connected graph ''G'', ''k'' points v_1,\ldot ...
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Discrete Laplace Operator
In mathematics, the discrete Laplace operator is an analog of the continuous Laplace operator, defined so that it has meaning on a Graph (discrete mathematics), graph or a lattice (group), discrete grid. For the case of a finite-dimensional graph (having a finite number of edges and vertices), the discrete Laplace operator is more commonly called the Laplacian matrix. The discrete Laplace operator occurs in physics problems such as the Ising model and loop quantum gravity, as well as in the study of discrete dynamical systems. It is also used in numerical analysis as a stand-in for the continuous Laplace operator. Common applications include image processing, where it is known as the Laplace filter, and in machine learning for cluster analysis, clustering and semi-supervised learning on neighborhood graphs. Definitions Graph Laplacians There are various definitions of the ''discrete Laplacian'' for Graph (discrete mathematics), graphs, differing by sign and scale factor (sometime ...
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Discrete Exterior Calculus
In mathematics, the discrete exterior calculus (DEC) is the extension of the exterior calculus to discrete spaces including graphs and finite element meshes. DEC methods have proved to be very powerful in improving and analyzing finite element methods: for instance, DEC-based methods allow the use of highly non-uniform meshes to obtain accurate results. Non-uniform meshes are advantageous because they allow the use of large elements where the process to be simulated is relatively simple, as opposed to a fine resolution where the process may be complicated (e.g., near an obstruction to a fluid flow), while using less computational power than if a uniformly fine mesh were used. The discrete exterior derivative Stokes' theorem relates the integral of a differential (''n'' − 1)-form ''ω'' over the boundary ∂''M'' of an ''n''-dimensional manifold ''M'' to the integral of d''ω'' (the exterior derivative of ''ω'', and a differential ''n''-form on ''M'') over ''M' ...
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Discrete Morse Theory
Discrete Morse theory is a combinatorial adaptation of Morse theory developed by Robin Forman. The theory has various practical applications in diverse fields of applied mathematics and computer science, such as configuration spaces, homology computation, denoising, mesh compression, and topological data analysis. Notation regarding CW complexes Let X be a CW complex and denote by \mathcal its set of cells. Define the ''incidence function'' \kappa\colon\mathcal \times \mathcal \to \mathbb in the following way: given two cells \sigma and \tau in \mathcal, let \kappa(\sigma,~\tau) be the degree of the attaching map from the boundary of \sigma to \tau. The boundary operator is the endomorphism \partial of the free abelian group generated by \mathcal defined by :\partial(\sigma) = \sum_\kappa(\sigma,\tau)\tau. It is a defining property of boundary operators that \partial\circ\partial \equiv 0. In more axiomatic definitions one can find the requirement that \forall \sigma,\tau^ \in ...
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Topological Combinatorics
The mathematical discipline of topological combinatorics is the application of topological and algebro-topological methods to solving problems in combinatorics. History The discipline of combinatorial topology used combinatorial concepts in topology and in the early 20th century this turned into the field of algebraic topology. In 1978 the situation was reversed—methods from algebraic topology were used to solve a problem in combinatorics—when László Lovász proved the Kneser conjecture, thus beginning the new field of topological combinatorics. Lovász's proof used the Borsuk–Ulam theorem and this theorem retains a prominent role in this new field. This theorem has many equivalent versions and analogs and has been used in the study of fair division problems. In another application of homological methods to graph theory, Lovász proved both the undirected and directed versions of a conjecture of András Frank: Given a ''k''-connected graph ''G'', ''k'' points v_1,\ldot ...
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Spectral Shape Analysis
Spectral shape analysis relies on the spectrum (eigenvalues and/or eigenfunctions) of the Laplace–Beltrami operator to compare and analyze geometric shapes. Since the spectrum of the Laplace–Beltrami operator is invariant under isometries, it is well suited for the analysis or retrieval of non-rigid shapes, i.e. bendable objects such as humans, animals, plants, etc. Laplace The Laplace–Beltrami operator is involved in many important differential equations, such as the heat equation and the wave equation. It can be defined on a Riemannian manifold as the divergence of the gradient of a real-valued function ''f'': :\Delta f := \operatorname \operatorname f. Its spectral components can be computed by solving the Helmholtz equation (or Laplacian eigenvalue problem): : \Delta \varphi_i + \lambda_i \varphi_i = 0. The solutions are the eigenfunctions \varphi_i (modes) and corresponding eigenvalues \lambda_i, representing a diverging sequence of positive real numbers. The first ...
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