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.

⚛️ nuclear theory

Light-front Hamiltonian jet evolution in the Glasma

This paper develops a light-front Hamiltonian formalism using the time-dependent Basis Light-Front Quantization framework to simulate the real-time quantum evolution of a high-energy quark in the Glasma, successfully computing transverse momentum broadening and the jet quenching parameter while demonstrating consistency with classical estimates and providing a foundation for future systematic improvements.

Dana Avramescu, Carlos Lamas, Tuomas Lappi, Meijian Li, Carlos A. Salgado2026-05-12
⚛️ phenomenology

Dynamic Competition of Fast and Collisional Neutrino Flavor Instabilities with Collisional Damping in Spatially Inhomogeneous Systems

This paper demonstrates through numerical simulations that in spatially inhomogeneous core-collapse supernova environments, the dynamic competition between Fast and Collisional Flavor Instabilities and collisional damping leads to diverse intermediate evolutionary pathways, yet consistently results in a flavor-equilibrated asymptotic state, thereby challenging the widely accepted collisionless picture of Fast Flavor Instability.

Shota Takahashi, Hiroki Nagakura, Masamichi Zaizen, Chinami Kato, Jiabao Liu2026-05-12
⚛️ nuclear theory

RG-Consistent (P)NJL Model: Impact of Thermal Cutoff Modifications on Thermodynamics and Net-Baryon Number Fluctuations

This paper investigates how implementing a temperature-dependent thermal cutoff to ensure renormalization group consistency in RGNJL and RGPNJL models resolves causality violations, improves convergence to the Stefan-Boltzmann limit, and enhances the description of net-baryon number fluctuations compared to lattice QCD data, while revealing complex sensitivities in the PNJL framework at high baryon densities.

Jie Tang, Fan Lin, Xinyang Wang2026-05-12
⚛️ phenomenology

Nodal mechanism for the suppressed DDˉD\bar D decay of ψ(4040)\psi(4040) in the Bethe--Salpeter framework

This paper explains the anomalously suppressed DDˉD\bar D decay of ψ(4040)\psi(4040) within a conventional charmonium framework by demonstrating that node-induced cancellations in the relativistic decay amplitude significantly reduce the DDˉD\bar D width while leaving other open-charm channels largely unaffected.

Bing-Dong Wan, Sheng-Qi Zhang2026-05-12
⚛️ phenomenology

Neutrino masses, anomalous magnetic moments and dark matter with vector-like fermions and an inert scalar doublet

This paper proposes a beyond-the-Standard-Model framework incorporating vector-like fermions and an inert scalar doublet protected by a Z2Z_2 symmetry to simultaneously explain neutrino masses, the anomalous magnetic moments of electrons and muons, and dark matter, while remaining consistent with experimental constraints and offering testable LHC signatures.

Vandana Sahdev2026-05-11
⚛️ phenomenology

Family Unification in SO(16)SO(16) Grand Unification

This paper proposes a six-dimensional SO(16)SO(16) grand unified model that unifies the three Standard Model gauge symmetries with an SU(3)SU(3) family symmetry, successfully accommodating three chiral fermion generations while ensuring anomaly cancellation through vectorlike bulk fields and localized 4D fermions, and exhibiting a weakening gauge coupling at high energies.

Cheng-Wei Chiang, Tianjun Li, Naoki Yamatsu2026-05-11
⚛️ high-energy experiments

Ultralight dark matter detection with trapped-ion interferometry

This paper proposes using a single trapped ion prepared in a spin-motion entangled "Schrödinger cat" state as a matter-wave interferometer to detect ultralight dark matter, demonstrating that this approach offers parametrically enhanced sensitivity to probe unexplored regions of dark-photon and axion-like particle parameter space in the 10−1510^{-15} to 10−1410^{-14} eV mass window.

Leonardo Badurina, Diego Blas, John Ellis, Sebastian A. R. Ellis2026-05-11