MalLo March: A Live Sonified Performance With User Interaction

Presented at the 22nd International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD-2016)In this extended abstract we present a new performance piece titled MalLo March that uses MalLo, a predictive percussion instrument, to allow for real-time sonification of live performers. The piece consists of two movements where in the first movement audience members will use a web application and headphones to listen to a sonification of MalLo instruments as they are played live on stage. During the second movement each audience member will use an interface in the web app to design their own sonification of the instruments to create a personalized version of the performance. We present an overview of the hardware and interaction design, highlighting various listening modes that provide audience members with different levels of control in designing the sonification of the live performers

The Global Metronome: Absolute tempo sync for networked musical performance

At a time in the near future, many computers (including devices such as smart-phones) will have system clocks that are synchronized to a high degree (less than 1 ms of error). This will enable us to coordinate events across unconnected devices with a degree of accuracy that was previously impossible. In particular, high clock synchronization means that we can use these clocks to synchronize tempo between humans or sequencers with little-to-no communication between the devices. To facilitate this low-overhead tempo synchronization, we propose the Global Metronome, which is a simple, computationally cheap method to obtain absolute tempo synchronization. We present experimental results demonstrating the effectiveness of using the Global Metronome and compare the performance to MIDI clock sync, a common synchronization method. Finally, we present an open source implementation of a Global Metronome server using a GPS-connected Raspberry Pi that can be built for under $100

Defect via differential forms with logarithmic poles

We prove formulae for the Hodge numbers of big resolutions of singular hypersurfaces satisfying a Bott-type vanishing condition

Multiple Mirror Manifolds and Topology Change in String Theory

We use mirror symmetry to establish the first concrete arena of spacetime topology change in string theory. In particular, we establish that the {\it quantum theories} based on certain nonlinear sigma models with topologically distinct target spaces can be smoothly connected even though classically a physical singularity would be encountered. We accomplish this by rephrasing the description of these nonlinear sigma models in terms of their mirror manifold partners--a description in which the full quantum theory can be described exactly using lowest order geometrical methods. We establish that, for the known class of mirror manifolds, the moduli space of the corresponding conformal field theory requires not just two but {\it numerous} topologically distinct Calabi-Yau manifolds for its geometric interpretation. A {\it single} family of continuously connected conformal theories thereby probes a host of topologically distinct geometrical spaces giving rise to {\it multiple mirror manifolds}.Comment: 18 pp., (uses harvmac and epsf) (Missing reference added.

Calabi-Yau 4-folds and toric fibrations

We present a general scheme for identifying fibrations in the framework of toric geometry and provide a large list of weights for Calabi--Yau 4-folds. We find 914,164 weights with degree $d\le150$ whose maximal Newton polyhedra are reflexive and 525,572 weights with degree $d\le4000$ that give rise to weighted projective spaces such that the polynomial defining a hypersurface of trivial canonical class is transversal. We compute all Hodge numbers, using Batyrev's formulas (derived by toric methods) for the first and Vafa's fomulas (obtained by counting of Ramond ground states in N=2 LG models) for the latter class, checking their consistency for the 109,308 weights in the overlap. Fibrations of k-folds, including the elliptic case, manifest themselves in the N lattice in the following simple way: The polyhedron corresponding to the fiber is a subpolyhedron of that corresponding to the k-fold, whereas the fan determining the base is a linear projection of the fan corresponding to the k-fold.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX2

Extremal Transitions in Heterotic String Theory

In this paper we study extremal transitions between heterotic string compactifications, i.e., transitions between pairs (M,V) where M is a Calabi-Yau manifold and V a gauge bundle. Bundle transitions are described using language recently espoused by Friedman, Morgan, Witten. In addition, partly as a check on our methods, we also study how small instantons are described in the same language, and also describe the sheaves corresponding to small instantons.Comment: 26 pages, LaTex, 3 figures, references adde

MalLo: A Distributed, Synchronized Instrument for Internet Music Performance

The Internet holds a lot of potential as a music listening, collaboration, and performance space. It has become commonplace to stream music and video of musical performance over the web. However, the goal of playing rhythmically synchronized music over long distances has remained elusive due to the latency inherent in networked communication. The farther apart two artists are from one another, the greater the delay. Furthermore, latency times can change abruptly with no warning. In this paper, we demonstrate that it is possible to create a distributed, synchronized musical instrument that allows performers to play together over long distances, despite latency. We describe one such instrument, MalLo, which combats latency by predicting a musician’s action before it is completed. MalLo sends information about a predicted musical note over the Internet before it is played, and synthesizes this note at a collaborator’s location at nearly the same moment it is played by the performer. MalLo also protects against latency spikes by sending the prediction data across multiple network paths, with the intention of routing around latency

D-Branes on Noncompact Calabi-Yau Manifolds: K-Theory and Monodromy

We study D-branes on smooth noncompact toric Calabi-Yau manifolds that are resolutions of abelian orbifold singularities. Such a space has a distinguished basis {S_i} for the compactly supported K-theory. Using local mirror symmetry we demonstrate that the S_i have simple transformation properties under monodromy; in particular, they are the objects that generate monodromy around the principal component of the discriminant locus. One of our examples, the toric resolution of C^3/(Z_2 x Z_2), is a three parameter model for which we are able to give an explicit solution of the GKZ system.Comment: 40 pp, substantial revision

Heterotic Models from Vector Bundles on Toric Calabi-Yau Manifolds

We systematically approach the construction of heterotic E_8 X E_8 Calabi-Yau models, based on compact Calabi-Yau three-folds arising from toric geometry and vector bundles on these manifolds. We focus on a simple class of 101 such three-folds with smooth ambient spaces, on which we perform an exhaustive scan and find all positive monad bundles with SU(N), N=3,4,5 structure groups, subject to the heterotic anomaly cancellation constraint. We find that anomaly-free positive monads exist on only 11 of these toric three-folds with a total number of bundles of about 2000. Only 21 of these models, all of them on three-folds realizable as hypersurfaces in products of projective spaces, allow for three families of quarks and leptons. We also perform a preliminary scan over the much larger class of semi-positive monads which leads to about 44000 bundles with 280 of them satisfying the three-family constraint. These 280 models provide a starting point for heterotic model building based on toric three-folds.Comment: 41 pages, 5 figures. A table modified and a table adde

Canonical toric Fano threefolds

An inductive approach to classifying toric Fano varieties is given. As an application of this technique, we present a classification of the toric Fano threefolds with at worst canonical singularities. Up to isomorphism, there are 674,688 such varieties