Visualization of 4D Vector Field Topology

Abstract

In this paper, we present an approach to the topological analysis of four-dimensional vector fields. In analogy to traditional 2D and 3D vector field topology, we provide a classification and visual representation of critical points, together with a technique for extracting their invariant manifolds. For effective exploration of the resulting four-dimensional structures, we present a 4D camera that provides concise representation by exploiting projection degeneracies, and a 4D clipping approach that avoids self-intersection in the 3D projection. We exemplify the properties and the utility of our approach using specific synthetic cases.