Correlated electron materials can undergo a variety of phase transitions, including superconductivity, the metal-insulator transition and colossal magnetoresistance. Moreover, multiple physical phases or domains with dimensions of nanometres to micrometres can coexist in these materials at temperatures where a pure phase is expected. Making use of the properties of correlated electron materials in device applications will require the ability to control domain structures and phase transitions in these materials. Lattice strain has been shown to cause the coexistence of metallic and insulating phases in the Mott insulator VO(2). Here, we show that we can nucleate and manipulate ordered arrays of metallic and insulating domains along single-crystal beams of VO(2) by continuously tuning the strain over a wide range of values. The Mott transition between a low-temperature insulating phase and a high-temperature metallic phase usually occurs at 341 K in VO(2), but the active control of strain allows us to reduce this transition temperature to room temperature. In addition to device applications, the ability to control the phase structure of VO(2) with strain could lead to a deeper understanding of the correlated electron materials in general.

This paper describes a new modeling framework for microscopic to reservoir-scale simulations of hydraulic fracturing and production. The approach builds upon a fusion of two existing high-performance simulators for reservoir-scale behavior: the GEOS code for hydromechanical evolution during stimulation and the TOUGH+ code for multi-phase flow during production. The reservoir-scale simulations are informed by experimental and modeling studies at the laboratory scale to incorporate important micro-scale mechanical processes and chemical reactions occurring within the fractures, the shale matrix, and at the fracture-fluid interfaces. These processes include, among others, changes in stimulated fracture permeability as a result of proppant behavior rear-rangement or embedment, or mineral scale precipitation within pores and microfractures, at µm to cm scales. In our new modeling framework, such micro-scale testing and modeling provides upscaled hydromechanical parameters for the reservoir scale models. We are currently testing the new modeling framework using field data and core samples from the Hydraulic Fracturing Field Test (HFTS), a recent field-based joint research experiment with intense monitoring of hydraulic fracturing and shale production in the Wolfcamp Formation in the Permian Basin (USA). Below, we present our approach coupling the reservoir simulators GEOS and TOUGH+ informed by upscaled parameters from micro-scale experiments and modeling. We provide a brief overview of the HFTS and the available field data, and then discuss the ongoing application of our new workflow to the HFTS data set.

We report a new determination of q, the jet transport coefficient of the quark-gluon plasma. We use the JETSCAPE framework, which incorporates a novel multistage theoretical approach to in-medium jet evolution and Bayesian inference for parameter extraction. The calculations, based on the Matter and Lbt jet quenching models, are compared to experimental measurements of inclusive hadron suppression in Au+Au collisions at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and Pb+Pb collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The correlation of experimental systematic uncertainties is accounted for in the parameter extraction. The functional dependence of q on jet energy or virtuality and medium temperature is based on a perturbative picture of in-medium scattering, with components reflecting the different regimes of applicability of Matter and Lbt. In the multistage approach, the switch between Matter and Lbt is governed by a virtuality scale Q0. Comparison of the posterior model predictions to the RHIC and LHC hadron suppression data shows reasonable agreement, with moderate tension in limited regions of phase space. The distribution of q/T3 extracted from the posterior distributions exhibits weak dependence on jet momentum and medium temperature T, with 90% credible region (CR) depending on the specific choice of model configuration. The choice of Matter+Lbt, with switching at virtuality Q0, has 90% CR of 240 GeV/c. The value of Q0, determined here for the first time, is in the range 2.0-2.7 GeV.

We study the properties of the strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma with a multistage model of heavy-ion collisions that combines the TRENTo initial condition ansatz, free-streaming, viscous relativistic hydrodynamics, and a relativistic hadronic transport. A model-to-data comparison with Bayesian inference is performed, revisiting assumptions made in previous studies. The role of parameter priors is studied in light of their importance for the interpretation of results. We emphasize the use of closure tests to perform extensive validation of the analysis workflow before comparison with observations. Our study combines measurements from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), achieving a good simultaneous description of a wide range of hadronic observables from both colliders. The selected experimental data provide reasonable constraints on the shear and the bulk viscosities of the quark-gluon plasma at T≈ 150-250 MeV, but their constraining power degrades at higher temperatures, T 250 MeV. Furthermore, these viscosity constraints are found to depend significantly on how viscous corrections are handled in the transition from hydrodynamics to the hadronic transport. Several other model parameters, including the free-streaming time, show similar model sensitivity, while the initial condition parameters associated with the TRENTo ansatz are quite robust against variations of the particlization prescription. We also report on the sensitivity of individual observables to the various model parameters. Finally, Bayesian model selection is used to quantitatively compare the agreement with measurements for different sets of model assumptions, including different particlization models and different choices for which parameters are allowed to vary between RHIC and LHC energies.

Using combined data from the Relativistic Heavy Ion and Large Hadron Colliders, we constrain the shear and bulk viscosities of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) at temperatures of ∼150-350  MeV. We use Bayesian inference to translate experimental and theoretical uncertainties into probabilistic constraints for the viscosities. With Bayesian model averaging we propagate an estimate of the model uncertainty generated by the transition from hydrodynamics to hadron transport in the plasma's final evolution stage, providing the most reliable phenomenological constraints to date on the QGP viscosities.

The JETSCAPE framework is a modular and versatile Monte Carlo software package for the simulation of high energy nuclear collisions. In this work we present a new tune of JETSCAPE, called PP19, and validate it by comparison to jet-based measurements in p+p collisions, including inclusive single jet cross sections, jet shape observables, fragmentation functions, charged hadron cross sections, and dijet mass cross sections. These observables in p+p collisions provide the baseline for their counterparts in nuclear collisions. Quantifying the level of agreement of JETSCAPE results with p+p data is thus necessary for meaningful applications of JETSCAPE to A+A collisions. The calculations use the JETSCAPE PP19 tune, defined in this paper, based on version 1.0 of the JETSCAPE framework. For the observables discussed in this work calculations using JETSCAPE PP19 agree with data over a wide range of collision energies at a level comparable to standard Monte Carlo codes. These results demonstrate the physics capabilities of the JETSCAPE framework and provide benchmarks for JETSCAPE users.

We study parton energy-momentum exchange with the quark gluon plasma (QGP) within a multistage approach composed of in-medium Dokshitzer-Gribov-Lipatov-Altarelli-Parisi evolution at high virtuality, and (linearized) Boltzmann transport formalism at lower virtuality. This multistage simulation is then calibrated in comparison with high-pT charged hadrons, D mesons, and the inclusive jet nuclear modification factors, using Bayesian model-to-data comparison, to extract the virtuality-dependent transverse momentum broadening transport coefficient q. To facilitate this undertaking, we develop a quantitative metric for validating the Bayesian workflow, which is used to analyze the sensitivity of various model parameters to individual observables. The usefulness of this new metric in improving Bayesian model emulation is shown to be highly beneficial for future such analyses.

We report on the nuclear dependence of transverse single-spin asymmetries (TSSAs) in the production of positively charged hadrons in polarized p^{↑}+p, p^{↑}+Al, and p^{↑}+Au collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=200  GeV. The measurements have been performed at forward rapidity (1.4<η<2.4) over the range of transverse momentum (1.8

The PHENIX collaboration has measured high-pT dihadron correlations in p+p, p+Al, and p+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV. The correlations arise from inter- and intrajet correlations and thus have sensitivity to nonperturbative effects in both the initial and final states. The distributions of pout, the transverse-momentum component of the associated hadron perpendicular to the trigger hadron, are sensitive to initial- and final-state transverse momenta. These distributions are measured multidifferentially as a function of xE, the longitudinal momentum fraction of the associated hadron with respect to the trigger hadron. The near-side pout widths, sensitive to fragmentation transverse momentum, show no significant broadening between p+Au, p+Al, and p+p. The away-side nonperturbative pout widths are found to be broadened in p+Au when compared to p+p; however, there is no significant broadening in p+Al compared to p+p collisions. The data also suggest that the away-side pout broadening is a function of Ncoll, the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions, in the interaction. The potential implications of these results with regard to initial- and final-state transverse-momentum broadening and energy loss of partons in a nucleus, among other nuclear effects, are discussed.

Dihadron and isolated direct photon-hadron angular correlations are measured in p+p collisions at s=200 GeV. The correlations are sensitive to nonperturbative initial-state and final-state transverse momenta kT and jT in the azimuthal nearly back-to-back region Δφ∼π. To have sensitivity to small transverse momentum scales, nonperturbative momentum widths of pout, the out-of-plane transverse-momentum component perpendicular to the trigger particle, are measured. In this region, the evolution of pout can be studied when several different hard scales are measured. These widths are used to investigate possible effects from transverse-momentum-dependent factorization breaking. When accounting for the longitudinal-momentum fraction of the away-side hadron with respect to the near-side trigger particle, the widths are found to increase with the hard scale; this is qualitatively similar to the observed behavior in Drell-Yan and semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering interactions, where factorization is predicted to hold. The momentum widths are also studied as a function of center-of-mass energy by comparing to previous measurements at s=510 GeV. The nonperturbative jet widths also appear to increase with s at a similar xT, which is qualitatively consistent to similar measurements in Drell-Yan interactions. Future detailed global comparisons between measurements of processes where transverse-momentum-dependent factorization is predicted to hold and be broken will provide further insight into the role of color in hadronic interactions.