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Jacob Miller

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Published work

11 published item(s)

preprint2026arXiv

Bridging Graph Drawing and Dimensionality Reduction with Stochastic Stress Optimization

Both Dimensionality Reduction (DR) and Graph Drawing (GD) aim to visualize abstract, non-linear structures, yet rely on different optimization paradigms. This contrast is evident in Multidimensional Scaling (MDS), which typically depends on the SMACOF algorithm despite graph drawing results showing that simpler stochastic optimization schemes can be more effective for the same objective. We bridge these domains by adapting Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) techniques from graph drawing to vector data embedding. We present a scikit-learn compatible estimator that minimizes global stress through local pairwise updates, improving upon the existing implementation. Experiments on standard high-dimensional benchmarks show that our stochastic solver converges substantially faster than SMACOF while achieving comparable or lower stress.

preprint2026arXiv

Class Angular Distortion Index for Dimensionality Reduction

Dimensionality reduction (DR) techniques are often characterized by whether they preserve global, high-level structures in the data or local, neighborhood structures. This distinction matters in visualization: global methods can obscure clusters while local methods can over-emphasize them. Yet, even when clusters appear distinct, their relative arrangement in the projection may be arbitrary or misleading, a common issue in techniques such as t-SNE and UMAP. Existing cluster quality metrics either only measure cluster separability or assume spherical, globular clusters in the original space. We introduce the Class Angular Distortion Index (CADI), a metric that uses internal angles among point triples to determine the faithfulness of cluster organization in a projection. We show cases on both real and synthetic data where existing cluster metrics fail, but CADI provides an interpretable result. Since it relies on computing angles, CADI is also differentiable, enabling optimization. We demonstrate this with a CADI-based DR technique.

preprint2022arXiv

Browser-based Hyperbolic Visualization of Graphs

Hyperbolic geometry offers a natural focus + context for data visualization and has been shown to underlie real-world complex networks. However, current hyperbolic network visualization approaches are limited to special types of networks and do not scale to large datasets. With this in mind, we designed, implemented, and analyzed three methods for hyperbolic visualization of networks in the browser based on inverse projections, generalized force-directed algorithms, and hyperbolic multi-dimensional scaling (H-MDS). A comparison with Euclidean MDS shows that H-MDS produces embeddings with lower distortion for several types of networks. All three methods can handle node-link representations and are available in fully functional web-based systems.

preprint2022arXiv

Decomposition of Matrix Product States into Shallow Quantum Circuits

The rapid pace of recent advancements in numerical computation, notably the rise of GPU and TPU hardware accelerators, have allowed tensor network (TN) algorithms to scale to even larger quantum simulation problems, and to be employed more broadly for solving machine learning tasks. The "quantum-inspired" nature of TNs permits them to be mapped to parametrized quantum circuits (PQCs), a fact which has inspired recent proposals for enhancing the performance of TN algorithms using near-term quantum devices, as well as enabling joint quantum-classical training frameworks which benefit from the distinct strengths of TN and PQC models. However, the success of any such methods depends on efficient and accurate methods for approximating TN states using realistic quantum circuits, something which remains an unresolved question. In this work, we compare a range of novel and previously-developed algorithmic protocols for decomposing matrix product states (MPS) of arbitrary bond dimensions into low-depth quantum circuits consisting of stacked linear layers of two-qubit unitaries. These protocols are formed from different combinations of a preexisting analytical decomposition scheme with constrained optimization of circuit unitaries, and all possess efficient classical runtimes. Our experimental results reveal one particular protocol, involving sequential growth and optimization of the quantum circuit, to outperform all other methods, with even greater benefits seen in the setting of limited computational resources. Given these promising results, we expect our proposed decomposition protocol to form a useful ingredient within any joint application of TNs and PQCs, in turn further unlocking the rich and complementary benefits of classical and quantum computation.

preprint2022arXiv

Spherical Graph Drawing by Multi-dimensional Scaling

We describe an efficient and scalable spherical graph embedding method. The method uses a generalization of the Euclidean stress function for Multi-Dimensional Scaling adapted to spherical space, where geodesic pairwise distances are employed instead of Euclidean distances. The resulting spherical stress function is optimized by means of stochastic gradient descent. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations demonstrate the scalability and effectiveness of the proposed method. We also show that some graph families can be embedded with lower distortion on the sphere, than in Euclidean and hyperbolic spaces.

preprint2016arXiv

Hierarchy of universal entanglement in 2D measurement-based quantum computation

Measurement-based quantum computation (MQC) is a paradigm for studying quantum computation using many-body entanglement and single-qubit measurements. While MQC has inspired wide-ranging discoveries throughout quantum information, our understanding of the general principles underlying MQC seems to be biased by its historical reliance upon the archetypal 2D cluster state. Here, we utilize recent advances in the subject of symmetry-protected topological order (SPTO) to introduce a novel MQC resource state, whose physical and computational behavior differs fundamentally from the cluster state. We show that, in sharp contrast to the cluster state, our state enables universal quantum computation using only measurements of single-qubit Pauli X, Y, and Z operators. This novel computational feature is related to the "genuine" 2D SPTO possessed by our state, and which is absent in the cluster state. Our concrete connection between the latent computational complexity of many-body systems and macroscopic quantum orders may find applications in quantum many-body simulation for benchmarking classically intractable complexity.

preprint2015arXiv

Discrete Wasserstein Barycenters: Optimal Transport for Discrete Data

Wasserstein barycenters correspond to optimal solutions of transportation problems for several marginals, and as such have a wide range of applications ranging from economics to statistics and computer science. When the marginal probability measures are absolutely continuous (or vanish on small sets) the theory of Wasserstein barycenters is well-developed (see the seminal paper [1]). However, exact continuous computation of Wasserstein barycenters in this setting is tractable in only a small number of specialized cases. Moreover, in many applications data is given as a set of probability measures with finite support. In this paper, we develop theoretical results for Wasserstein barycenters in this discrete setting. Our results rely heavily on polyhedral theory which is possible due to the discrete structure of the marginals. Our results closely mirror those in the continuous case with a few exceptions. In this discrete setting we establish that Wasserstein barycenters must also be discrete measures and there is always a barycenter which is provably sparse. Moreover, for each Wasserstein barycenter there exists a non-mass-splitting optimal transport to each of the discrete marginals. Such non-mass-splitting transports do not generally exist between two discrete measures unless special mass balance conditions hold. This makes Wasserstein barycenters in this discrete setting special in this regard. We illustrate the results of our discrete barycenter theory with a proof-of-concept computation for a hypothetical transportation problem with multiple marginals: distributing a fixed set of goods when the demand can take on different distributional shapes characterized by the discrete marginal distributions. A Wasserstein barycenter, in this case, represents an optimal distribution of inventory facilities which minimize the squared distance/transportation cost totaled over all demands.

preprint2015arXiv

Resource quality of a symmetry-protected topologically ordered phase for quantum computation

We investigate entanglement naturally present in the 1D topologically ordered phase protected with the on-site symmetry group of an octahedron as a potential resource for teleportation-based quantum computation. We show that, as long as certain characteristic lengths are finite, all its ground states have the capability to implement any unit-fidelity one-qubit gate operation asymptotically as a key computational building block. This feature is intrinsic to the entire phase, in that perfect gate fidelity coincides with perfect string order parameters under a state-insensitive renormalization procedure. Our approach may pave the way toward a novel program to classify quantum many-body systems based on their operational use for quantum information processing.

preprint2015arXiv

The Hierarchy of Circuit Diameters and Transportation Polytopes

The study of the diameter of the graph of polyhedra is a classical problem in the theory of linear programming. While transportation polytopes are at the core of operations research and statistics it is still open whether the Hirsch conjecture is true for general $m{\times}n$--transportation polytopes. In earlier work the first three authors introduced a hierarchy of variations to the notion of graph diameter in polyhedra. The key reason was that this hierarchy provides some interesting lower bounds for the usual graph diameter. This paper has three contributions: First, we compare the hierarchy of diameters for the $m{\times}n$--transportation polytopes. We show that the Hirsch conjecture bound of $m+n-1$ is actually valid in most of these diameter notions. Second, we prove that for $3{\times}n$--transportation polytopes the Hirsch conjecture holds in the classical graph diameter. Third, we show for $2{\times}n$--transportation polytopes that the stronger monotone Hirsch conjecture holds and improve earlier bounds on the graph diameter.

preprint2013arXiv

Identifying Contributions to the Stellar Halo from Accreted, Kicked-Out, and In Situ Populations

[Abridged] We present a medium-resolution spectroscopic survey of late-type giant stars at mid-Galactic latitudes of (30$^{\circ}<|b|<60^{\circ}$), designed to probe the properties of this population to distances of $\sim$9 kpc. Because M giants are generally metal-rich and we have limited contamination from thin disk stars by the latitude selection, most of the stars in the survey are expected to be members of the thick disk ($<$[Fe/H]$>\sim$-0.6) with some contribution from the metal-rich component of the nearby halo. Here we report first results for 1799 stars. The distribution of radial velocity (RV) as a function of l for these stars shows (1) the expected thick disk population and (2) local metal-rich halo stars moving at high speeds relative to the disk, that in some cases form distinct sequences in RV-$l$ space. High-resolution echelle spectra taken for 34 of these "RV outliers" reveal the following patterns across the [Ti/Fe]-[Fe/H] plane: seventeen of the stars have abundances reminiscent of the populations present in dwarf satellites of the Milky Way; eight have abundances coincident with those of the Galactic disk and more metal-rich halo; and nine of the stars fall on the locus defined by the majority of stars in the halo. The chemical abundance trends of the RV outliers suggest that this sample consists predominantly of stars accreted from infalling dwarf galaxies. A smaller fraction of stars in the RV outlier sample may have been formed in the inner Galaxy and subsequently kicked to higher eccentricity orbits, but the sample is not large enough to distinguish conclusively between this interpretation and the alternative that these stars represent the tail of the velocity distribution of the thick disk. Our data do not rule out the possibility that a minority of the sample could have formed from gas {\it in situ} on their current orbits.

preprint2010arXiv

Constant Scalar Curvature Metrics on Boundary Complexes of Cyclic Polytopes

In [7], a notion of constant scalar curvature metrics on piecewise flat manifolds is defined. Such metrics are candidates for canonical metrics on discrete manifolds. In this paper, we define a class of vertex transitive metrics on certain triangulations of $\mathbb{S}^3$; namely, the boundary complexes of cyclic polytopes. We use combinatorial properties of cyclic polytopes to show that, for any number of vertices, these metrics have constant scalar curvature.