Topology Versus Time in Scientific Visualization

Abstract

Dynamic visualization can aid in understanding the voluminous data generated by scientific simulations, particularly in the life sciences. But, there is risk of misunderstanding. The visualization has discrete time steps, while the object topology is changing continuously. An instantaneous topological change could be biologically or chemically significant but go unobserved. Abstractions from knot theory guide our creation of algorithms to guarantee continuously correct topology. Animations will be shown of the crucial interdependencies between time and topology for scientific simulations.

This is joint work with A. C. Russell (UConn) & K. E. Jordan (IBM)