🍩 Database of Original & Non-Theoretical Uses of Topology

(found 3 matches in 0.001067s)

  1. Quantitative Analysis of Phase Transitions in Two-Dimensional XY Models Using Persistent Homology (2022)

    Nicholas Sale, Jeffrey Giansiracusa, Biagio Lucini
    Abstract We use persistent homology and persistence images as an observable of three different variants of the two-dimensional XY model in order to identify and study their phase transitions. We examine models with the classical XY action, a topological lattice action, and an action with an additional nematic term. In particular, we introduce a new way of computing the persistent homology of lattice spin model configurations and, by considering the fluctuations in the output of logistic regression and k-nearest neighbours models trained on persistence images, we develop a methodology to extract estimates of the critical temperature and the critical exponent of the correlation length. We put particular emphasis on finite-size scaling behaviour and producing estimates with quantifiable error. For each model we successfully identify its phase transition(s) and are able to get an accurate determination of the critical temperatures and critical exponents of the correlation length.

  2. Analysis of Kolmogorov Flow and Rayleigh–Bénard Convection Using Persistent Homology (2016)

    Miroslav Kramár, Rachel Levanger, Jeffrey Tithof, Balachandra Suri, Mu Xu, Mark Paul, Michael F. Schatz, Konstantin Mischaikow
    Abstract We use persistent homology to build a quantitative understanding of large complex systems that are driven far-from-equilibrium. In particular, we analyze image time series of flow field patterns from numerical simulations of two important problems in fluid dynamics: Kolmogorov flow and Rayleigh–Bénard convection. For each image we compute a persistence diagram to yield a reduced description of the flow field; by applying different metrics to the space of persistence diagrams, we relate characteristic features in persistence diagrams to the geometry of the corresponding flow patterns. We also examine the dynamics of the flow patterns by a second application of persistent homology to the time series of persistence diagrams. We demonstrate that persistent homology provides an effective method both for quotienting out symmetries in families of solutions and for identifying multiscale recurrent dynamics. Our approach is quite general and it is anticipated to be applicable to a broad range of open problems exhibiting complex spatio-temporal behavior.

  3. Loops Abound in the Cosmic Microwave Background: A \$4\sigma\$ Anomaly on Super-Horizon Scales (2021)

    Pratyush Pranav
    Abstract We present a topological analysis of the temperature fluctuation maps from the \emph\Planck 2020\ Data release 4 (DR4) based on the \texttt\NPIPE\ data processing pipeline. For comparison, we also present the topological characteristics of the maps from \emph\Planck 2018\ Data release 3 (DR3). We perform our analysis in terms of the homology characteristics of the maps, invoking relative homology to account for analysis in the presence of masks. We perform our analysis for a range of smoothing scales spanning sub- and super-horizon scales corresponding to \$FWHM = 5', 10', 20', 40', 80', 160', 320', 640'\$. Our main result indicates a significantly anomalous behavior of the loops in the observed maps compared to simulations that are modeled as isotopic and homogeneous Gaussian random fields. Specifically, we observe a \$4\sigma\$ deviation between the observation and simulations in the number of loops at \$FWHM = 320'\$ and \$FWHM = 640'\$, corresponding to super-horizon scales of \$5\$ degrees and larger. In addition, we also notice a mildly significant deviation at \$2\sigma\$ for all the topological descriptors for almost all the scales analyzed. Our results show a consistency across different data releases, and therefore, the anomalous behavior deserves a careful consideration regarding its origin and ramifications. Disregarding the unlikely source of the anomaly being instrumental systematics, the origin of the anomaly may be genuinely astrophysical -- perhaps due to a yet unresolved foreground, or truly primordial in nature. Given the nature of the topological descriptors, that potentially encodes information of all orders, non-Gaussianities, of either primordial or late-type nature, may be potential candidates. Alternate possibilities include the Universe admitting a non-trivial global topology, including effects induced by large-scale topological defects.