Combinatorial 2D Vector Field Topology Extraction and Simplification

This paper investigates a combinatorial approach to vector field topology. The theoretical basis is given by Robin Forman's work on a combinatorial Morse theory for dynamical systems defined on general simplicial complexes. We formulate Forman's theory in a graph theoretic setting and provide a simple algorithm for the construction and topological simplification of combinatorial vector fields on 2D manifolds. Given a combinatorial vector field we are able to extract its topological skeleton including all periodic orbits. Due to the solid theoretical foundation we know that the resulting structure is always topologically consistent. We explore the applicability and limitations of this combinatorial approach with several examples and determine its robustness with respect to noise.