Topological data analysis for scientific visualization (Q1692406)

The book under review is built as a systematic textbook that pinpoints the elements of data visualization and offers the theoretical background for this task. The book consists of six chapters and commences with a scientific semi-anecdote on the role of creative visualisations, from un-expected angles, of dwarf galaxies. Also in the first chapter, the author highlights challenges that influence distinct stages of the scientific methods: the abstraction of high-level features, the interactive handling and exploration of features and the analysis itself i.e. the development of algorithms for handling the geometric measurements. \newline In the second chapter background notions are introduced focussing on data representation (domain and range representations), topological abstractions (including critical points, the Reeb graph and the Morse-Smale complex) and specific algorithms developed for the topological abstractions (e.g. critical point pair extraction and the evaluation of persistence, time-efficient algorithms for 2D and 3D domains and the analysis of PL 2-manifolds). The third chapter comprises of a detailed description (including the analysis of time complexity, applications and limitations) of algorithms for the efficient topological simplification of scalar fields and the computation, on Reeb graphs, of volumetric meshes. The fourth chapter reviews the interactive handling of features; it commences with the description of methods for the topological simplification of isosurfaces. Next, approaches for editing topological abstractions are presented including the Morse-Smale complex editing and the Reeb graph editing. The fifth chapter is built on the discussion of two examples, the exploration of turbulent combustion and the quantitative analysis of molecular interactions. For both, the author reviews the task and introduces an abstract description. Next, the algorithm is presented, followed by a discussion of the results and a critical analysis of the ouptut. The book concludes with an overview of current constrains and ideas for new data types that might prove to be efficient for modelling real-life tasks and handling uncertain data in a more resourceful manner. \newline The book is written in an accessible style, suitable for undergraduates and graduates alike, and only requires a minimal algorithmic background. All notions used throughout are either introduced in chapter 2 (Background) or in the preliminary sections of each paragraph, making this book self-consistent.