This collection of peer-reviewed conference papers provides comprehensive coverage of cutting-edge research in topological approaches to data analysis and visualization. It encompasses the full range of new algorithms and insights, including fast homology computation, comparative analysis of simplification techniques, and key applications in materials and medical science. The volume also features material on core research challenges such as the representation of large and complex datasets and integrating numerical methods with robust combinatorial algorithms. Reflecting the focus of the TopoInVis 2013 conference, the contributions evince the progress currently being made on finding experimental solutions to open problems in the sector. They provide an inclusive snapshot of state-of-the-art research that enables researchers to keep abreast of the latest developments and provides a foundation for future progress. With papers by some of the world’s leading experts in topological techniques, this volume is a major contribution to the literature in a field of growing importance with applications in disciplines that range from engineering to medicine.

This collection of peer-reviewed conference papers provides comprehensive coverage of cutting-edge research in topological approaches to data analysis and visualization. It encompasses the full range of new algorithms and insights, including fast homology computation, comparative analysis of simplification techniques, and key applications in materials and medical science. The volume also features material on core research challenges such as the representation of large and complex datasets and integrating numerical methods with robust combinatorial algorithms.

Reflecting the focus of the TopoInVis 2013 conference, the contributions evince the progress currently being made on finding experimental solutions to open problems in the sector. They provide an inclusive snapshot of state-of-the-art research that enables researchers to keep abreast of the latest developments and provides a foundation for future progress. With papers by some of the world s leading experts in topological techniques, this volume is a major contribution to the literature in a field of growing importance with applications in disciplines that range from engineering to medicine."

When scientists analyze datasets in a search for underlying phenomena, patterns or causal factors, their first step is often an automatic or semi-automatic search for structures in the data. Of these feature-extraction methods, topological ones stand out due to their solid mathematical foundation. Topologically defined structures-as found in scalar, vector and tensor fields-have proven their merit in a wide range of scientific domains, and scientists have found them to be revealing in subjects such as physics, engineering, and medicine. Full of state-of-the-art research and contemporary hot topics in the subject, this volume is a selection of peer-reviewed papers originally presented at the fourth Workshop on Topology-Based Methods in Data Analysis and Visualization, TopoInVis 2011, held in Zurich, Switzerland. The workshop brought together many of the leading lights in the field for a mixture of formal presentations and discussion. One topic currently generating a great deal of interest, and explored in several chapters here, is the search for topological structures in time-dependent flows, and their relationship with Lagrangian coherent structures. Contributors also focus on discrete topologies of scalar and vector fields, and on persistence-based simplification, among other issues of note. The new research results included in this volume relate to all three key areas in data analysis-theory, algorithms and applications.