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At least 505 records · Page 28

Onboard Image Registration from Invariant Features

This paper describes a feature-based image registration technique that is potentially well-suited for onboard deployment. The overall goal is to provide a fast, robust method for dynamically combining observations from multiple platforms into sensors webs that respond quickly to short-lived events and provide rich observations of objects that evolve in space and time. The approach, which has enjoyed considerable success in mainstream computer vision applications, uses invariant SIFT descriptors extracted at image interest points together with the RANSAC algorithm to robustly estimate transformation parameters that relate one image to another. Experimental results for two satellite image registration tasks are presented: (1) automatic registration of images from the MODIS instrument on Terra to the MODIS instrument on Aqua and (2) automatic stabilization of a multi-day sequence of GOES-West images collected during the October 2007 Southern California wildfires.

descriptors↗

A Goldstone boson equivalence for inflation

The effective field theory of single-field inflation characterizes the inflationary epoch in terms of a pattern of symmetry breaking. An operator acquires a time-dependent vacuum expectation value, defining a preferred spatial slicing. In the absence of dynamical gravity, the fluctuations around the time-dependent background are described by the Goldstone boson associated with this symmetry breaking process. With gravity, the Goldstone is eaten by the metric, becoming the scalar metric fluctuation. In this paper, we will show that in general single-field inflation, the statistics of scalar metric fluctuations are given by the statistics of this Goldstone boson decoupled from gravity up to corrections that are controlled as an expansion in slow-roll parameters. This even holds in the presence of additional parameters, like the speed of sound, that naively enhance the impact of the gravitational terms. In the process, we derive expressions for leading and sub-leading gravitational corrections to all-orders in the Goldstone boson.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Scale-dependent bias from the primordial non-Gaussianity with a Gaussian-squared field

We investigate the halo bias in the case where the primordial curvature fluctuations, Φ, are sourced from both a Gaussian random field and a Gaussian-squared field, as Φ(x) = φ(x)+ψ(x){sup 2}−(ψ(x){sup 2}ångle, so-called ''ungaussiton model''. We employ the peak-background split formula and find a new scale-dependence in the halo bias induced from the Gaussian-squared field.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Large non-Gaussian halo bias from single field inflation

We calculate Large Scale Structure observables for non-Gaussianity arising from non-Bunch-Davies initial states in single field inflation. These scenarios can have substantial primordial non-Gaussianity from squeezed (but observable) momentum configurations. They generate a term in the halo bias that may be more strongly scale-dependent than the contribution from the local ansatz. We also discuss theoretical considerations required to generate an observable signature.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Representations of relativistic particles of arbitrary spin in Poincaré, Lorentz, and Euclidean covariant formulations of relativistic quantum mechanics

Background: Relativistic treatments of quantum mechanical systems are important for understanding hadronic structure and dynamics at subnucleon scales. Relativistic invariance of a quantum system means that there is an underlying unitary representation of the Poincaré group. This is equivalent to the requirement that the quantum observables (probabilities, expectation values, and ensemble averages) for equivalent measurements performed in different inertial reference frames are identical. Different representations are used in practice, including Poincaré covariant forms of dynamics, representations based on Lorentz covariant wave functions, Euclidean covariant representations, and representations generated by Lorentz covariant fields. Purpose: The purpose of this work is to illustrate the relation between the different equivalent representations of states in relativistic quantum mechanics. Method: The starting point is a description of a particle of mass m and spin j using irreducible representations of the Poincaré group. Since any unitary representation of the Poincaré group can be decomposed into a direct integral of irreducible representations, these are the basic building blocks of any relativistically invariant quantum theory. The equivalence is established by constructing equivalent Lorentz covariant irreducible representations from Poincaré covariant irreducible representations and constructing equivalent Euclidean covariant irreducible representations from Lorentz covariant irreducible representations. Results: Equivalent descriptions for positive mass representations of arbitrary spin are presented in each of these frameworks. Dynamical realizations of the different representations are briefly discussed. Conclusion: Poincaré covariant, Lorentz covariant, and Euclidean covariant realizations of relativistic dynamics are shown to be equivalent by explicitly relating the positive-mass positive-energy irreducible representations of the Poincaré group that appear in the direct integral.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Dual use of image based tracking techniques: Laser eye surgery and low vision prosthesis

With a concentration on Fourier optics pattern recognition, we have developed several methods of tracking objects in dynamic imagery to automate certain space applications such as orbital rendezvous and spacecraft capture, or planetary landing. We are developing two of these techniques for Earth applications in real-time medical image processing. The first is warping of a video image, developed to evoke shift invariance to scale and rotation in correlation pattern recognition. The technology is being applied to compensation for certain field defects in low vision humans. The second is using the optical joint Fourier transform to track the translation of unmodeled scenes. Developed as an image fixation tool to assist in calculating shape from motion, it is being applied to tracking motions of the eyeball quickly enough to keep a laser photocoagulation spot fixed on the retina, thus avoiding collateral damage.

Juday, Richard D.↗

Dual Use of Image Based Tracking Techniques: Laser Eye Surgery and Low Vision Prosthesis

With a concentration on Fourier optics pattern recognition, we have developed several methods of tracking objects in dynamic imagery to automate certain space applications such as orbital rendezvous and spacecraft capture, or planetary landing. We are developing two of these techniques for Earth applications in real-time medical image processing. The first is warping of a video image, developed to evoke shift invariance to scale and rotation in correlation pattern recognition. The technology is being applied to compensation for certain field defects in low vision humans. The second is using the optical joint Fourier transform to track the translation of unmodeled scenes. Developed as an image fixation tool to assist in calculating shape from motion, it is being applied to tracking motions of the eyeball quickly enough to keep a laser photocoagulation spot fixed on the retina, thus avoiding collateral damage.

Juday, Richard D.↗

Status of Monte-Carlo Event Generators

Recent progress on general-purpose Monte-Carlo event generators is reviewed with emphasis on the simulation of hard QCD processes and subsequent parton cascades. Describing full final states of high-energy particle collisions in contemporary experiments is an intricate task. Hundreds of particles are typically produced, and the reactions involve both large and small momentum transfer. The high-dimensional phase space makes an exact solution of the problem impossible. Instead, one typically resorts to regarding events as factorized into different steps, ordered descending in the mass scales or invariant momentum transfers which are involved. In this picture, a hard interaction, described through fixed-order perturbation theory, is followed by multiple Bremsstrahlung emissions off initial- and final-state and, finally, by the hadronization process, which binds QCD partons into color-neutral hadrons. Each of these steps can be treated independently, which is the basic concept inherent to general-purpose event generators. Their development is nowadays often focused on an improved description of radiative corrections to hard processes through perturbative QCD. In this context, the concept of jets is introduced, which allows to relate sprays of hadronic particles in detectors to the partons in perturbation theory. In this talk, we briefly review recent progress on perturbative QCD in event generation. The main focus lies on the general-purpose Monte-Carlo programs HERWIG, PYTHIA and SHERPA, which will be the workhorses for LHC phenomenology. A detailed description of the physics models included in these generators can be found in [8]. We also discuss matrix-element generators, which provide the parton-level input for general-purpose Monte Carlo.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Relationship between star formation rate and black hole accretion at z=3: the different contributions in quiescent, normal, and starburst galaxies

We investigate the co-evolution of the black hole accretion rate (BHAR) and the star formation rate (SFR) in 1.5<z<2.5 galaxies displaying a greater diversity of star-forming properties compared to previous studies. We combine X-ray stacking and far-IR photometry of stellar mass-limited samples of normal star-forming, starburst, and quiescent/quenched galaxies in the COSMOS field. We corroborate the existence of a strong correlation between BHAR (i.e., the X-ray luminosity, L{sub X}) and stellar mass (M{sub *}) for normal star-forming galaxies, though we find a steeper relation than previously reported. We find that starbursts show a factor of three enhancement in BHAR compared to normal SF galaxies (against a factor of six excess in SFR), while quiescents show a deficit of a factor times 5.5 at a given mass. One possible interpretation of this is that the starburst phase does not coincide with cosmologically relevant BH growth, or that starburst-inducing mergers are more efficient at boosting SFR than BHAR. Contrary to studies based on smaller samples, we find that the BHAR/SFR ratio of main-sequence (MS) galaxies is not mass invariant, but scales weakly as M{sub ∗}{sup 0.43±0.09}, implying faster BH growth in more massive galaxies at z∼2. Furthermore, BHAR/SFR during the starburst is a factor of two lower than in MS galaxies, at odds with the predictions of hydrodynamical simulations of merger galaxies that foresee a sudden enhancement of L{sub X}/SFR during the merger. Finally, we estimate that the bulk of the accretion density of the universe at z∼2 is associated with normal star-forming systems, with only ∼6(±1)% and ∼11(±1)% associated with starburst and quiescent galaxies, respectively.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Coarse-coded higher-order neural networks for PSRI object recognition

A higher-order neural network (HONN) can be designed to be invariant to changes in scale, translation, and inplane rotation. Invariances are built directly into the architecture of a HONN and do not need to be learned. Consequently, fewer training passes and a smaller training set are required to learn to distinguish between objects. The size of the input field is limited, however, because of the memory required for the large number of interconnections in a fully connected HONN. By coarse coding the input image, the input field size can be increased to allow the larger input scenes required for practical object recognition problems. We describe a coarse coding technique and present simulation results illustrating its usefulness and its limitations. Our simulations show that a third-order neural network can be trained to distinguish between two objects in a 4096 x 4096 pixel input field independent of transformations in translation, in-plane rotation, and scale in less than ten passes through the training set. Furthermore, we empirically determine the limits of the coarse coding technique in the object recognition domain.

Spirkovska, Lilly↗

Physics and chemistry from parsimonious representations: image analysis via invariant variational autoencoders

Electron, optical, and scanning probe microscopy methods are generating ever increasing volume of image data containing information on atomic and mesoscale structures and functionalities. This necessitates the development of the machine learning methods for discovery of physical and chemical phenomena from the data, such as manifestations of symmetry breaking phenomena in electron and scanning tunneling microscopy images, or variability of the nanoparticles. Variational autoencoders (VAEs) are emerging as a powerful paradigm for the unsupervised data analysis, allowing to disentangle the factors of variability and discover optimal parsimonious representation. Here, we summarize recent developments in VAEs, covering the basic principles and intuition behind the VAEs. The invariant VAEs are introduced as an approach to accommodate scale and translation invariances present in imaging data and separate known factors of variations from the ones to be discovered. We further describe the opportunities enabled by the control over VAE architecture, including conditional, semi-supervised, and joint VAEs. Several case studies of VAE applications for toy models and experimental datasets in Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy are discussed, emphasizing the deep connection between VAE and basic physical principles. Python codes and datasets discussed in this article are available at https://github.com/saimani5/VAE-tutorials and can be used by researchers as an application guide when applying these to their own datasets.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Characterization Approaches to Place Invariant Sites on SI-Traceable Scales

The effort to understand the Earth's climate system requires a complete integration of remote sensing imager data across time and multiple countries. Such an integration necessarily requires ensuring inter-consistency between multiple sensors to create the data sets needed to understand the climate system. Past efforts at inter-consistency have forced agreement between two sensors using sources that are viewed by both sensors at nearly the same time, and thus tend to be near polar regions over snow and ice. The current work describes a method that would provide an absolute radiometric calibration of a sensor rather than an inter-consistency of a sensor relative to another. The approach also relies on defensible error budgets that eventually provides a cross comparison of sensors without systematic errors. The basis of the technique is a model-based, SI-traceable prediction of at-sensor radiance over selected sites. The predicted radiance would be valid for arbitrary view and illumination angles and for any date of interest that is dominated by clear-sky conditions. The effort effectively works to characterize the sites as sources with known top-of-atmosphere radiance allowing accurate intercomparison of sensor data that without the need for coincident views. Data from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection and Radiometer (ASTER), Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) are used to demonstrate the difficulties of cross calibration as applied to current sensors. Special attention is given to the differences caused in the cross-comparison of sensors in radiance space as opposed to reflectance space. The radiance comparisons lead to significant differences created by the specific solar model used for each sensor. The paper also proposes methods to mitigate the largest error sources in future systems. The results from these historical intercomparisons provide the basis for a set of recommendations to ensure future SI-traceable cross calibration using future missions such as CLARREO and TRUTHS. The paper describes a proposed approach that relies on model-based, SI-traceable predictions of at-sensor radiance over selected sites. The predicted radiance would be valid for arbitrary view and illumination angles and for any date of interest that is dominated by clear-sky conditions. The basis of the method is highly accurate measurements of at-sensor radiance of sufficient quality to understand the spectral and BRDF characteristics of the site and sufficient historical data to develop an understanding of temporal effects from changing surface and atmospheric conditions.

Thome, Kurtis↗

Galilean invariance and the consistency relation for the nonlinear squeezed bispectrum of large scale structure

We discuss the constraints imposed on the nonlinear evolution of the Large Scale Structure (LSS) of the universe by galilean invariance, the symmetry relevant on subhorizon scales. Using Ward identities associated to the invariance, we derive fully nonlinear consistency relations between statistical correlators of the density and velocity perturbations, such as the power spectrum and the bispectrum. These relations are valid up to O(f{sub NL}{sup 2}) corrections. We then show that most of the semi-analytic methods proposed so far to resum the perturbative expansion of the LSS dynamics fail to fulfill the constraints imposed by galilean invariance, and are therefore susceptible to non-physical infrared effects. Finally, we identify and discuss a nonperturbative semi-analytical scheme which is manifestly galilean invariant at any order of its expansion.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗