Sharp edges are important shape features and their extraction has been extensively studied both on point clouds and surfaces. We consider the problem of extracting sharp edges from a sparse set of colour-and-depth (RGB-D) images. The noise-ridden depth measurements are challenging for existing feature extraction methods that work solely in the geometric domain (e.g. points or meshes). By utilizing both colour and depth information, we propose a novel feature extraction method that produces much cleaner and more coherent feature lines. We make two technical contributions. First, we show that intensity edges can augment the depth map to improve normal estimation and feature localization from a single RGB-D image. Second, we designed a novel algorithm for consolidating feature points obtained from multiple RGB-D images. By utilizing normals and ridge/valley types associated with the feature points, our algorithm is effective in suppressing noise without smearing nearby features.

We review first Azumaya geometry and D-branes in the realm of algebraic geometry along the line of Polchinski-Grothendieck Ansatz from our earlier work and then use it as background to introduce Azumaya C^{\infty} -manifolds with a fundamental module and morphisms therefrom to a projective complex manifold. This gives us a description of D-branes of A-type. Donaldson's picture of Lagrangian and special Lagrangian submanifolds as selected from the zero-locus of a moment map on a related space of maps can be merged into the setting. As a pedagogical toy model, we study D-branes of A-type in a Calabi-Yau torus. Simple as it is, it reveals several features of D-branes, including their assembling/disassembling. The 4th theme of Sec. 2.4, the 2nd theme of Sec. 4.2, and Sec. 4.3 are to be read respectively with Gmez-Sharpe (arXiv: hep-th/0008150), Donagi-Katz-Sharpe (arXiv: hep-th/0309270), and Denef (arXiv: hep-th/0107152). Some string-theoretical remarks are given at the end of each section.

We study the rigidity of polyhedral surfaces and the moduli space of polyhedral surfaces using variational principles. Curvature-like quantities for polyhedral surfaces are introduced and are shown to determine the polyhedral metric up to isometry. The action functionals in the variational approaches are derived from the cosine law. They can be considered as 2-dimensional counterparts of the Schlaefli formula.

Wave dynamics in topological materials has been widely studied recently. A striking feature is the existence of robust and chiral wave propagations that have potential applications in many fields. A common way to realize such wave patterns is to utilize Dirac points which carry topological indices and is supported by the symmetries of the media. In this work, we investigate these phenomena in photonic media. Starting with Maxwell's equations with a honeycomb material weight as well as the nonlinear Kerr effect, we first prove the existence of Dirac points in the dispersion surfaces of transverse electric and magnetic Maxwell operators under very general assumptions of the material weight. Our assumptions on the material weight are almost the minimal requirements to ensure the existence of Dirac points in a general hexagonal photonic crystal. We then derive the associated wave packet dynamics in the scenario where the honeycomb structure is weakly modulated. It turns out the reduced envelope equation is generally a two-dimensional nonlinear Dirac equation with a spatially varying mass. By studying the reduced envelope equation with a domain-wall-like mass term, we realize the subtle wave motions which are chiral and immune to local defects. The underlying mechanism is the existence of topologically protected linear line modes, also referred to as edge states. However, we show that these robust linear modes do not survive with nonlinearity. We demonstrate the existence of nonlinear line modes, which can propagate in the nonlinear media based on high-accuracy numerical computations. Moreover, we also report a new type of nonlinear modes which are localized in both directions.

Motivated by spectral gluing patterns in the Betti Langlands program, we show that for any reductive group G, a parabolic subgroup P, and a topological surface M, the (enhanced) spectral Eisenstein series category of M is the factorization homology over M of the E2-Hecke category H_{G,P} =IndCoh(LS_{G,P}(D^2, S^1)), where LS_{G,P}(D^2, S^1) denotes the moduli stack of G-local systems on a disk together with a P-reduction on the boundary circle. More generally, for any pair of stacks Y → Z satisfying some mild conditions and any map between topological spaces N → M, we define (Y, Z)^{N,M} = Y^N ×_{Z^N} {Z^M} to be the space of maps from M to Z along with a lift to Y of its restriction to N. Using the pair of pants construction, we define an E_n-category H_n(Y, Z) = IndCoh_0((Y, Z)^{S^n−1,D^n})_{Y}), and compute its factorization homology on any d-dimensional manifold M with d ≤ n, \int_M H_n(Y, Z) = IndCoh_0(Y, Z)^{∂(M×D^n−d),M}_{Y^M}, where IndCoh_0 is the sheaf theory introduced by ArinkinGaitsgory and Beraldo. Our result naturally extends previous known computations of Ben-Zvi–Francis–Nadler and Beraldo.