Related papers: Shape Theories. I. Their Diversity is Killing-Base…
Kendall's Similarity Shape Theory for constellations of points in the carrier space $\mathbb{R}^n$ was developed for use in Probability and Statistics. It was subsequently shown to reside within (Classical and Quantum) Mechanics'…
Kendall-type Shape(-and-Scale) Theory on $\mathbb{R}^d$ involves $N$ point configurations therein quotiented by some geometrically meaningful automorphism group. This occurs in Shape Statistics, the Classical and Quantum $N$-body Problem…
Shape(-and-scale) spaces - configuration spaces for generalized Kendall-type Shape(-and-Scale) Theories - are usually not manifolds but stratified manifolds. While in Kendall's own case - similarity shapes - the shape spaces are…
Suppose one seeks to free oneself from a symmetric absolute space by quotienting out its symmetry group. This in general however fails to erase all memory of this absolute space's symmetry properties. Stratification is one major reason for…
This treatise concerns shapes in the sense of constellations of points with various automorphisms quotiented out: continuous translations, rotations and dilations, and also discrete mirror image identification and labelling…
Kendall's Similarity Shape Theory for constellations of N points in the carrier space $\mathbb{R}^d$ as quotiented by the similarity group was developed for use in Probability and Statistics. It was subsequently shown to reside within…
A suite of relational notions of shape are presented at the level of configuration space geometry, with corresponding new theories of shape mechanics and shape statistics. These further generalize two quite well known examples: --1)…
Background Independence is the modern form of the relational side of the Absolute versus Relational Debate. Difficulties with its implementation form the Problem of Time. Its 9 facets - Isham and Kucha\v{r}'s conceptual classification -…
The program of understanding Shape Theory layer by layer topologically and geometrically -- proposed in Part I -- is now addressed for 4 points in 1-$d$. Topological shape space graphs are far more complex here, whereas metric shape spaces…
This is an innovative treatise on triangles, resting upon 1) 3-body problem techniques including mass-weighted relative Jacobi coordinates. 2) Part I's detailed layer-by-layer topological and geometrical study of Kendall-type shape spaces -…
Shape Theory, together with Shape-and-Scale Theory, comprise Relational Theory. This consists of $N$-point models on a manifold $M$, for which some geometrical automorphism group $G$ is regarded as meaningless and is thus quotiented out…
Shape inference is classically ill-posed, because it involves a map from the (2D) image domain to the (3D) world. Standard approaches regularize this problem by either assuming a prior on lighting and rendering or restricting the domain,…
I previously showed that Kendall's work on shape geometry is in fact also the geometrical description of Barbour's relational mechanics' reduced configuration spaces (alias shape spaces). I now describe the extent to which Kendall's…
Shape dynamics is a completely background-independent universal framework of dynamical theories from which all absolute elements have been eliminated. For particles, only the variables that describe the shapes of the instantaneous particle…
Shape Dynamics is a gauge theory based on spatial diffeomorphism- and Weyl-invariance which is locally indistinguishable form classical General Relativity. If taken seriously, it suggests that the spacetime--geometry picture that underlies…
This thesis consists of two parts, connected by one central theme: the dynamics of the "shape of space". The first part of the thesis concerns the construction of a theory of gravity dynamically equivalent to general relativity (GR) in 3+1…
We review the $N$-Body Problem in arbitrary dimension $d$ at the kinematical level, with modelling Background Independence in mind. In particular, we give a structural analysis of its reduced configuration spaces, decomposing this subject…
Generally, quantum field theories can be thought as deformations away from conformal field theories. In this article, with a simple bottom up model assumed to possess a holographic description, we study a putative large N quantum field…
Recent critiques of the semantic conception of scientific theories suggest that a theory is not best formulated as a collection of models satisfying some set of kinematical or dynamical conditions. Thus it has been argued that additional…
In the statistical analysis of shape a goal beyond the analysis of static shapes lies in the quantification of `same' deformation of different shapes. Typically, shape spaces are modelled as Riemannian manifolds on which parallel transport…