Analogy and duality of texture analysis by harmonics or indicators

According to the classic harmonic approach, an orientation density function (odf)f is expanded into its corresponding Fourier orthogonal series with respect to generalized spherical harmonics, and a pole density function (pdf) into its corresponding Fourier orthogonal series with respect to spherical harmonics. While pdfs are even (antipodally symmetric) functions, odfs are generally not. Therefore, the part of the odf which cannot be determined from normal diffraction pdfs can be mathematically represented as the odd portion of its series expansion. If the odff is given, the even part can be mathematically represented explicitly in terms off itself. Thus, it is possible to render maps ofharmonic orientation ghosts, and to evaluatevariants of mathematical standard odfs resulting in identical pdfs independent of pdf data. However, if only normal diffraction pdfs are known, the data-dependentvariation width of feasible odfs remained unaccessible, and within the harmonic approach a measure of confidence in a solution of the pdf-to-odf inversion problem does not exist.According to any discrete approach, an odff defined on some setG of orientations is expanded into its corresponding Fourier orthogonal series with respect to indicator functions of the elements of a partition ofG, and a pdf defined on the upper (lower) unit hemisphereS₊³³ into its corresponding Fourier orthogonal series with respect to indicator functions of the elements of a partition ofS₊³. The ambiguity of the pdf-to-odf inversion problem is discussed in terms of column-rank deficiency of the augmented projection matrix. The implication of the harmonic approach to split an odf into auniquely determined and anundetermined part does no longer seem to be reasonable. However, it is possible to numerically determine data-dependent confidence intervals for the Fourier coefficients with respect to the indicator functions which can be immediately interpreted as mean orientation densities within the elements of the partition ofG. Doing so for all Fourier coefficients in the finite series expansion, i.e. for all elements of the partition of the setG, eventually results in the data-dependent variation width of odfs feasible with respect to given pdf data, and to the partitions ofG andS₊³.Thus it is confirmed that the appearance of orientation ghosts, in particular correlations oftrue andghost orientation components, depends on the representation of an odf. It may be questioned whether in practical applications the implicit assumption of the harmonic method that the even part can be determined uniquely and free of error is generally a reasonable initial condition to develop ghost correction procedures.