Hep-Th, or high-energy theoretical physics, explores the fundamental building blocks of our universe and the forces that govern them. Researchers in this field use complex mathematics to understand everything from subatomic particles to the behavior of black holes, often pushing the boundaries of what we know about space and time.

At Gist.Science, we monitor the arXiv repository to ensure you stay ahead of the curve in this rapidly evolving discipline. For every new preprint uploaded to arXiv under this category, our team generates both accessible plain-language overviews and detailed technical summaries, making cutting-edge research understandable regardless of your background.

Below are the latest papers in high-energy theoretical physics, curated to help you navigate the most significant recent discoveries.

⚛️ general relativity

Asymptotic safety, quantum gravity, and the swampland: a conceptual assessment

This paper provides a conceptual assessment of the compatibility between asymptotically safe quantum gravity and the swampland program, identifying black hole thermodynamics, spacetime topology change, and holography as the core aspects that determine whether field-theoretic descriptions of gravity can satisfy fundamental consistency principles.

Ivano Basile, Benjamin Knorr, Alessia Platania, Marc Schiffer2026-02-04
⚛️ high-energy theory

Tunneling with physics-informed RG flows in the anharmonic oscillator

This paper demonstrates that physics-informed renormalisation group (PIRG) flows, enhanced by ground state expansion and precision Galerkin numerics, successfully capture the non-perturbative instanton physics of the anharmonic oscillator's weak-coupling tunneling regime, yielding a decay constant that deviates by only 1% from the analytic value.

Alfio Bonanno, Friederike Ihssen, Jan M. Pawlowski2026-02-04