Branch Decomposition‐Independent Edit Distances for Merge Trees. (29th July 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wetzels, Florian; Leitte, Heike; Garth, Christoph
• Is Part Of: Computer graphics forum. Volume 41:Number 3(2022)
• Page Start: 367
• Page End: 378
• Publication Date: 2022-07-29
• Subjects: Computer graphics -- Periodicals; 006.605
• DOI: 10.1111/cgf.14547
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0167-7055

Abstract

Abstract: Edit distances between merge trees of scalar fields have many applications in scientific visualization, such as ensemble analysis, feature tracking or symmetry detection. In this paper, we propose branch mappings, a novel approach to the construction of edit mappings for merge trees. Classic edit mappings match nodes or edges of two trees onto each other, and therefore have to either rely on branch decompositions of both trees or have to use auxiliary node properties to determine a matching. In contrast, branch mappings employ branch properties instead of node similarity information, and are independent of predetermined branch decompositions. Especially for topological features, which are typically based on branch properties, this allows a more intuitive distance measure which is also less susceptible to instabilities from small‐scale perturbations. For trees with 𝒪(n) nodes, we describe an 𝒪(n 4 ) algorithm for computing optimal branch mappings, which is faster than the only other branch decomposition‐independent method in the literature by more than a linear factor. Furthermore, we compare the results of our method on synthetic and real‐world examples to demonstrate its practicality and utility.