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.

Gravitational scalar production with a generic reheating scenario

This paper investigates the gravitational production of decoupled scalars across various reheating scenarios, deriving constraints on their properties and demonstrating that while universal gravity effects do not necessarily invalidate non-thermal dark matter models for specific inflaton potentials, the reheating dynamics significantly influence relic abundance and impose stringent limits on scalar parameters.

Francesco Costa, Jinsu Kim2026-05-11⚛️ hep-ph

Decoding the near-threshold X0,1(4140)X_{0,\,1}(4140) and X1(4685)X_{1}(4685) states via OZI-suppressed coupled-channel scattering

This paper utilizes OZI-suppressed coupled-channel scattering analysis within the effective range expansion framework to identify the X0(4140)X_{0}(4140) as a dynamically generated pole and the X1(4685)X_{1}(4685) as a ψ(2S)ϕ\psi(2S)\phi hadronic molecule, thereby resolving empirical ambiguities and illuminating the roles of Fierz rearrangement and OZI suppression in low-energy strong interactions.

Mao-Jun Yan2026-05-11⚛️ hep-ph

Unbinned extraction of γ\gamma from BDKB\to DK with normalizing flows

This paper introduces and validates an unbinned method using normalizing flows to extract the CKM angle γ\gamma from B±(DKSπ+π)K±B^\pm \to (D \to K_S \pi^+ \pi^-) K^\pm decays, demonstrating its ability to accurately recover γ\gamma and other parameters from Monte Carlo data while propagating statistical uncertainties through ensemble training.

Yuval Grossman, Tony Menzo, Stefan Schacht, Chinhsan Sieng, Jure Zupan2026-05-11⚛️ hep-ph

When Does Critique Improve AI-Assisted Theoretical Physics? SCALAR: Structured Critic--Actor Loop for Agentic Reasoning

This paper introduces SCALAR, a structured Actor-Critic-Judge framework that demonstrates how multi-turn dialogue and specific critic feedback strategies, particularly in asymmetric pairings, significantly enhance AI performance on complex theoretical physics problems, while revealing that model scaling alone cannot overcome the hardest reasoning bottlenecks.

Vasilis Niarchos, Constantinos Papageorgakis, Alexander G. Stapleton, Sokratis Trifinopoulos2026-05-11🤖 cs.AI

Propagator of a massive charged vector boson in a magnetic field: Ritus eigenfunction method

This paper derives the propagator for a massive charged vector boson in a constant magnetic field using the Ritus eigenfunction method in the unitary gauge, providing a detailed analysis of Landau-level polarization vectors, formulating the LSZ reduction formula for radiative corrections, and establishing a systematic connection to Schwinger proper-time representations that reveals a slight discrepancy with previous literature.

Manuel Emiliano Monreal Cancino, Angel Sánchez2026-05-11⚛️ hep-ph