1665 papers
Nuclear theory sits at the fascinating intersection of particle physics and the forces that hold our universe together. This field explores how protons and neutrons bind inside atomic nuclei, seeking to understand the fundamental interactions that govern matter at its most dense and energetic levels. While the mathematics involved can be incredibly complex, the core questions are deeply human: how does the universe function at its smallest scales, and what happens when we push matter to its limits?
At Gist.Science, we make these cutting-edge discoveries accessible by processing every new preprint published in this category on arXiv. Our team transforms dense academic manuscripts into clear, plain-language summaries alongside detailed technical overviews, ensuring that both experts and curious readers can grasp the latest breakthroughs without getting lost in the jargon. Below are the latest papers in nuclear theory, distilled and ready for you to explore.
Using first-principles lattice simulations of SU(3) Yang-Mills theory in Rindler spacetime, this study demonstrates that weak acceleration induces a spatially inhomogeneous confinement-deconfinement phase transition where distinct phases coexist, with a phase boundary consistent with theoretical predictions and a critical temperature matching that of non-accelerated gluodynamics.
This study evaluates the sensitivity of actinide fission yields to macroscopic liquid-drop model prescriptions by comparing the Lublin–Strasbourg Drop (LSD) and ISOLDA models, finding that while both reproduce gross isotopic patterns, LSD offers superior agreement with experimental data for heavy fragments and that the spread between the two models provides a practical estimate of macroscopic-model uncertainty.
This paper derives explicit asymptotic scaling laws for channel-coupling matrix elements in three-body systems with central potentials, demonstrating that short-range interactions decay algebraically to enable efficient channel decoupling at large hyperradii, whereas Coulomb interactions decay only as , leading to persistent coupling and slow convergence.
This study investigates the thermodynamic stability of low-density nuclear matter by incorporating light clusters within a generalized mean-field framework, revealing that a density-dependent infrared momentum cutoff is essential for thermodynamic consistency and can fundamentally alter spinodal instability patterns by driving clusters and nucleons to fluctuate out of phase.
Using time-dependent Hartree-Fock calculations for calcium-induced reactions on ytterbium, this study reveals that while quantum shell effects drive asymmetric quasi-fission toward a heavy fragment with Z~54, they do not induce a transition to symmetric modes in neutron-deficient systems, unlike in the fission of thorium compound nuclei.
This paper employs Bayesian model selection to optimize the energy dependence of parameters in a (3+1)-dimensional hybrid framework for relativistic heavy-ion collisions, subsequently using the resulting posterior distributions to predict various flow observables and quantify systematic uncertainties across different collision systems.
This paper investigates how modeling quark deconfinement in neutron stars via higher-order phase transitions, rather than a traditional first-order transition, influences binary merger dynamics and the interpretation of future gravitational wave observations.
This paper demonstrates that the hypothetical mesonic atom kaonium () manifests as a sharp resonance near 992 MeV in photon-photon collision cross-sections, significantly improving the fit to experimental data for processes like despite its short lifetime and narrow width making direct detection challenging.
This study provides a comprehensive comparison of coupled-cluster formulations based on symmetry-broken reference states and equation-of-motion techniques, demonstrating that both approaches yield consistent descriptions of bulk nuclear properties across calcium and nickel isotopic chains when using chiral effective field theory interactions.
This study incorporates particle number projection into finite-temperature Skyrme density functional calculations to rigorously determine deformation-dependent energies, revealing that while even-odd staggering diminishes near the critical temperature and fission barriers remain similar to unprojected results, the method provides valuable insights into nuclear level densities at both ground states and barriers.