Visualizing High-Order Symmetric Tensor Field Structure with Differential Operators
Figure 2
Lamb tensor (top row) and Helicity tensor (bottom row) of synthetic second-order tensor fields. The Lamb vector characterizes shear in the tensor field. Positive lobes are plotted in blue, and negative lobes are red. Note that the shear is primarily in an outward radial direction for all fields except for the saddle where the shear is directed inward. This makes the saddle feature easy to identify using the divergence of the Lamb tensor. The helicity tensor has both positive and negative lobes (and trace = 0) for all features except the helix.
