Hep-Ph explores the fundamental forces that govern how particles interact and behave at the smallest scales imaginable. This field bridges the gap between theoretical predictions and experimental reality, helping scientists understand the building blocks of our universe without getting lost in complex mathematics. Whether investigating the Higgs boson or searching for new physics beyond current models, these studies push the boundaries of human knowledge about matter and energy.

At Gist.Science, we process every new preprint in this category as soon as it appears on arXiv. We strip away the dense jargon to offer both accessible plain-language explanations and detailed technical summaries, ensuring that groundbreaking research is understandable to everyone from students to seasoned experts. Below are the latest papers in this dynamic field, ready for you to explore with clarity and depth.

Layered dark structure with a Structuring Field: A Z4Z_4-symmetric Inert Doublet-Singlet realization and implications for the S8S_8 tension

This paper proposes the Layered Dark Sectors with a Structuring Field (LDS-SF) framework, realized via a Z4Z_4-symmetric Inert Doublet-Singlet Model, which introduces late-time scale-dependent suppression of structure growth to successfully alleviate the S8S_8 tension while remaining consistent with standard cosmological observations.

Marriam Naeem, Mohid Farhan2026-03-31⚛️ hep-ph

Light and Heavy ZZ' from Flavored Chiral U(1)XU(1)_X Gauge Symmetries: Purely Axial and Mixed Vector-Axial Couplings

This paper proposes a new class of flavor-specific chiral U(1)XU(1)_X gauge symmetries that, through minimal anomaly-free charge assignments involving three right-handed neutrinos, enable the generation of purely axial and mixed vector-axial ZZ' couplings alongside flavor-changing neutral currents in both heavy and light ZZ' regimes.

Hemant Kumar Prajapati, Rahul Srivastava2026-03-31⚛️ hep-ph

Chiral Phase Transition in Rotating Quark Matter with Chiral Imbalance: A Medium Separation Scheme Regularized NJL Model Study

Using the Medium Separation Scheme regularized Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model, this study reveals that chiral imbalance and rotation exert opposing effects on chiral symmetry breaking, where the former enhances the phase transition while the latter suppresses it, with the imbalance notably buffering the rotation-induced softening and the regularization scheme resolving previous discrepancies with lattice QCD results.

Huang-Jing Zheng, Peng Nan, Sheng-Qin Feng2026-03-31⚛️ hep-ph

UV-Complete Models for a Light Axial Gauge Boson

This paper introduces three anomaly-free, left-right symmetric universal seesaw models featuring a light axial gauge boson (U(1)aU(1)_a) that accommodates small neutrino masses, offers a dark matter candidate via a new Dirac fermion, and exhibits distinct phenomenological constraints on the gauge coupling and boson mass depending on the specific model variant.

Bhaskar Dutta, Aparajitha Karthikeyan, Rabindra N. Mohapatra2026-03-31⚛️ hep-ph

Probe charmonium-nucleon interactions in high energy proton-proton collisions

This paper utilizes the EPOS4+CATS framework to dynamically generate non-Gaussian emission sources for charmonium-proton pairs in high-energy pp collisions, enabling the first femtoscopic extraction of charmonium-nucleon interactions while revealing that feed-down from excited states introduces significant uncertainties in prompt J/ψJ/\psi-proton correlation measurements.

Jiaxing Zhao, Taesoo Song, Joerg Aichelin, Elena Bratkovskaya, Pol Bernard Gossiaux, Klaus Werner2026-03-31⚛️ hep-ph

Isolation of photon-nuclear interaction backgrounds in the search for the chiral magnetic effect in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

This study quantitatively assesses the contribution of coherent photon-nuclear interactions, driven by strong electromagnetic fields in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, as a distinct background source that mimics chiral magnetic effect signals to improve the precision of separating genuine CME signals from background noise.

Jing Gu, Jinhui Chen, Jie Zhao2026-03-31⚛️ nucl-ex