Shared Visualizations In Support of Distributed Creative Communities

The paper is concerned with support for distributed groups of creative knowledge workers: in this case designers. We consider requirements that designers have regarding internalisation and externalisation of ideas and concepts as well as requirements relating to collaboration. We review an online system whose facilities for the graphical representation of data were found to be popular. The evaluation was in the context of a group task and the results, including instances of tacit knowledge sharing, have led us to formulate a number of recommendations as to how such systems might be made still more effective for collaborative working

'Spheres of Influence' : An Interactive Musical Work

In this paper we describe the development of an interactive artwork which incorporates both a musical composition and software which provides a visual and aural accompaniment. The system uses physical modeling to implement a type of virtual 'sonic sculpture' which responds to musical input in a way which appears naturalistic. This work forms part of a larger project to use art to explore the potential of computers to develop interactive tools which support the development of creative musical skills

Web-Based support for creative collaboration

This paper considers web-based systems in support of distributed communities involving creative work. It is concerned with the sharing of knowledge that might otherwise remain unspoken, or tacit, amongst those engaged in design tasks. Drawing on the results of the evaluation of a prototype system, pointers for future systems are presented

Partial reflections: interactive environments for musical exploration

This paper describes an ongoing project to develop interactive environments for musicians that encourage musical exploration. A process of developing software such as this, where requirements are highly dynamic and unclear is outlined and two musical compositions and associated interactive environments entitled 'Partial Reflections' are described

Designing for Conversational Interaction

In this paper we describe an interaction framework which classifies musicians interactions with virtual musical instruments into three modes: instrumental, ornamental and conversational. We argue that conversational interactions are the most difficult to design for, but also the most interesting. To illustrate our approach to designing for conversational interactions we describe the performance work Partial Reflections 3 for two clarinets and interactive software. This software uses simulated physical models to create a virtual sound sculpture which both responds to and produces sounds and visuals

Observation of Excess J/ψ Yield at Very Low Transverse Momenta in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=200 GeV and U+U Collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=193 GeV.

We report on the first measurements of J/ψ production at very low transverse momentum (p_{T}<0.2  GeV/c) in hadronic Au+Au collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=200  GeV and U+U collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=193  GeV. Remarkably, the inferred nuclear modification factor of J/ψ at midrapidity in Au+Au (U+U) collisions reaches about 24 (52) for p_{T}<0.05  GeV/c in the 60%-80% collision centrality class. This noteworthy enhancement cannot be explained by hadronic production accompanied by cold and hot medium effects. In addition, the dN/dt distribution of J/ψ for the very low p_{T} range is presented for the first time. The distribution is consistent with that expected from the Au nucleus and shows a hint of interference. Comparison of the measurements to theoretical calculations of coherent production shows that the excess yield can be described reasonably well and reveals a partial disruption of coherent production in semicentral collisions, perhaps due to the violent hadronic interactions. Incorporating theoretical calculations, the results strongly suggest that the dramatic enhancement of J/ψ yield observed at extremely low p_{T} originates from coherent photon-nucleus interactions. In particular, coherently produced J/ψ's in violent hadronic collisions may provide a novel probe of the quark-gluon plasma

Measurement of inclusive J/ψ suppression in Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV through the dimuon channel at STAR

J/ψ suppression has long been considered a sensitive signature of the formation of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. In this letter, we present the first measurement of inclusive J/ψ production at mid-rapidity through the dimuon decay channel in Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV with the STAR experiment. These measurements became possible after the installation of the Muon Telescope Detector was completed in 2014. The J/ψ yields are measured in a wide transverse momentum (pT) range of 0.15 GeV/c to 12 GeV/c from central to peripheral collisions. They extend the kinematic reach of previous measurements at RHIC with improved precision. In the 0-10% most central collisions, the J/ψ yield is suppressed by a factor of approximately 3 for pT>5 GeV/c relative to that in p+p collisions scaled by the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions. The J/ψ nuclear modification factor displays little dependence on pT in all centrality bins. Model calculations can qualitatively describe the data, providing further evidence for the color-screening effect experienced by J/ψ mesons in the QGP

Charge-dependent pair correlations relative to a third particle in p + Au and d + Au collisions at RHIC

Quark interactions with topological gluon configurations can induce chirality imbalance and local parity violation in quantum chromodynamics. This can lead to electric charge separation along the strong magnetic field in relativistic heavy-ion collisions – the chiral magnetic effect (CME). We report measurements by the STAR collaboration of a CME-sensitive observable in p+Au and d+Au collisions at 200 GeV, where the CME is not expected, using charge-dependent pair correlations relative to a third particle. We observe strong charge-dependent correlations similar to those measured in heavy-ion collisions. This bears important implications for the interpretation of the heavy-ion data