Nucl-Ex represents the dynamic frontier where scientists probe the fundamental building blocks of matter through high-energy experiments. By smashing particles together at incredible speeds or observing rare cosmic events, researchers uncover the forces that govern our universe and test the limits of our current understanding of physics.

At Gist.Science, we ensure these breakthroughs reach a broader audience by processing every new preprint in this field directly from arXiv. For each study, we provide both a clear, plain-language explanation of the core discoveries and a detailed technical summary for those seeking deeper insights. Below are the latest papers in nuclear experiment research, curated to help you stay informed on the latest developments from the lab.

⚛️ high-energy experiments

Study of the thermodynamic properties of hot QCD matter with the CMS experiment

This paper presents recent CMS measurements at the LHC that extract the squared speed of sound of hot QCD matter from ultra-central PbPb collisions, yielding a value of cs2=0.241±0.002(stat)±0.016(syst)c_s^2 = 0.241 \pm 0.002\, (\mathrm{stat}) \pm 0.016\, (\mathrm{syst}) at Teff219MeVT_{\mathrm{eff}} \approx 219\,\mathrm{MeV} which aligns well with lattice-QCD predictions, alongside complementary studies in pPb collisions to probe quark-gluon plasma signatures in smaller systems.

Cesar A. Bernardes2026-05-21
⚛️ nuclear experiments

Environmental Stabilization of Perfect-Crystal Neutron Interferometry Using a Large Vacuum Chamber with Cryogenic Sample Access

This paper describes the installation of a large, versatile vacuum chamber at the NIST Center for Neutron Research to stabilize perfect-crystal neutron interferometry against environmental fluctuations and enable cryogenic sample studies, demonstrated by the first successful measurement of a Ni60Cu40 sample cooled from 300 K to 4 K.

Robert Valdillez, David G. Cory, Robert W. Haun, Benjamin Heacock, Colin Heikes, Shannon F. Hoogerheide, Michael G. Hube (…)2026-05-20
⚛️ nuclear experiments

Emergence of Cluster Formation in Light Nuclei

This paper demonstrates that applying a specific non-unique coordinate transformation using experimentally derived deformation parameters to Bohr's quasi-molecular model successfully reproduces the emergence of cluster formation and characteristic shapes in light nuclei, such as 10^{10}B and 20^{20}Ne, while providing a physical interpretation of triaxiality through the superposition of multiple intrinsic configurations.

José Nicolás Orce, Manfred Jason Jaftha2026-05-19
⚛️ nuclear experiments

First observation of single beta decay of 96^{96}Zr

Researchers at the Baksan Neutrino Observatory have achieved the first detection of the single beta decay of 96^{96}Zr using a low-background HPGe detector and enriched zirconium samples, measuring its half-life to be approximately 2.27×10202.27 \times 10^{20} years while also observing the subsequent decay of the daughter nucleus 96^{96}Nb.

A. S. Barabash, S. Evseev, D. Filosofov, Yu. M. Gavrilyuk, A. M. Gangapshev, N. Gorshkov, V. V. Kazalov, S. Kazartsev, T (…)2026-05-19
⚛️ nuclear experiments

Manifestation of quark effects in nuclei via bremsstrahlung analysis in the proton-nucleus scattering

This paper proposes and theoretically validates a new method to observe quark effects in nuclei by analyzing in-medium modified nucleon magnetic moments through bremsstrahlung spectra in proton-nucleus scattering, specifically highlighting the potential of using ratios between carbon isotopes like 18^{18}C and 12^{12}C to isolate these effects.

Sergei P. Maydanyuk, K. Tsushima, G. Ramalho, Peng-Ming Zhang2026-05-18
⚛️ nuclear experiments

Entanglement study in the island of inversion region using \textit{ab initio} approach

This study employs an \textit{ab initio} valence space in-medium similarity renormalization group method to investigate quantum entanglement measures, such as proton-neutron entanglement entropy and mutual information, revealing their critical role in characterizing the structure and correlations within the N=20N=20 island of inversion region for neutron-rich Ne, Mg, and Si isotopes.

Rohit M. Shinde, Praveen C. Srivastava2026-05-18
⚛️ nuclear experiments

Forward hadron production in pp collisions at LHC energies from an event generator based on the color glass condensate framework

This paper utilizes the MC-CGC event generator to demonstrate that LHCb data favors HERA-constrained initial conditions for the rcBK evolution equation and that the dense-dense kTk_T factorization framework better describes mid-rapidity particle production than the dilute-dense DHJ approach, while also providing predictions for future ALICE FoCal measurements.

Hirotsugu Fujii, Tetsufumi Hirano, Kazunori Itakura, Yasushi Nara, Shujun Zhao2026-05-18