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.

Sivers Tomography from Charge and Angle Only

This paper proposes a theoretically clean and experimentally simple "one-point charge-correlator" probe for measuring the Sivers effect in back-to-back deep-inelastic scattering using only charged track signs and directions, which achieves factorization without relying on non-perturbative fragmentation functions and provides high-precision resummed predictions for future Electron-Ion Collider experiments.

Haotian Cao, Xiaohui Liu, Frank Petriello2026-05-18⚛️ nucl-th

Study of the shape coexistence in the 96Zr, 96Mo, 96Ru isobars

This study investigates shape coexistence and mixing in the stable 96^{96}Zr, 96^{96}Mo, and 96^{96}Ru isobars by combining Covariant Density Functional Theory for ground-state deformations with a Bohr-Mottelson Hamiltonian featuring an octic potential for excited states, revealing that these phenomena significantly influence the nuclear structure near the Z=40 and N=50 shell closures.

R. Budaca, P. Buganu, F. El Ouardi, A. Lahbas2026-05-18⚛️ nucl-th

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⚛️ nucl-ex

Advances in laser-assisted nuclear decay and nuclear excitation

This review comprehensively examines the past decade's theoretical and experimental advances in laser-assisted nuclear decay and excitation, highlighting key developments in modeling laser-nucleus interactions and achieving breakthroughs in exciting specific isotopes like 229^{229}Th, 83^{83}Kr, and 45^{45}Sc to enable future applications in fundamental science and technology.

Q. Xiao, J. H. Cheng, Y. Y. Xu, Y. T. Zou, Z. Z. Ren, A. Ya. Dzyublik, T. P. Yu2026-05-18⚛️ nucl-th

Inclusive charm and bottom quark pair production cross sections at hadron colliders at next-to-next-to-leading-order accuracy

This paper presents a comprehensive study of inclusive charm and bottom quark pair production cross sections across a wide range of collision energies using next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO) calculations with the new MaunaKea code, demonstrating that these advanced predictions significantly enhance accuracy and reduce theoretical uncertainties compared to previous NLO results, thereby achieving agreement with experimental data and offering valuable constraints on gluon density and the bottom-quark mass.

David d'Enterria, Felix Hekhorn, Ilkka Helenius, Van Dung Le, Hannu Paukkunen2026-05-18⚛️ nucl-ex

Minijet thermalization and jet transport coefficients in QCD kinetic theory

This paper employs weakly coupled QCD kinetic theory to simulate minijet thermalization in a Quark-Gluon Plasma, demonstrating that including recoiling medium particles is essential for reconciling standard jet transport coefficients with kinetic evolution and establishing a phenomenological estimate for minijet quenching times.

Kirill Boguslavski, Florian Lindenbauer, Aleksas Mazeliauskas, Adam Takacs, Fabian Zhou2026-05-15⚛️ nucl-th

Radiative decays of the 1PP, 1DD, 2SS, and 2PP Λc\Lambda_c and 1DD, 2SS, and 2PP Ξc\Xi_c charmed baryons

Using the constituent quark model, this paper analyzes the radiative decays of various excited Λc\Lambda_c and Ξc\Xi_c charmed baryons in the flavor anti-triplet, providing branching ratios and decay widths that aid in identifying resonances and clarifying the nature of the Ξc(3055)\Xi_c(3055) and Ξc(3080)\Xi_c(3080) states.

R. Gamboa-Goni, Ailier Rivero-Acosta, H. García-Tecocoatzi, A. Gutierrez-Rodriguez, A. Ramirez-Morales, E. Santopinto, Carlos Alberto Vaquera-Araujo2026-05-15⚛️ hep-ph

Deforming the Trail: Baseline Quantum Circuitry for SU(2)k\text{SU(2)}_k Lattice Gauge Theory

This paper proposes a quantum circuit strategy for simulating SU(2)k\text{SU(2)}_k lattice gauge theory by employing quantum group deformation to restore unitarity and reduce the resource scaling for two-qudit gates from O(d8)O(d^8) to O(d5)O(d^5), demonstrating that q-deformation remains a reliable truncation method with significant advantages for quantum circuit synthesis.

Zoë Webb-Mack, Natalie Klco2026-05-15⚛️ hep-lat

Folding procedure for ΩΩ-αα potential

This paper investigates the bound state of the Ω\Omega+α\alpha system by deriving a folding Ω\Omega-α\alpha potential from the HAL QCD Ω\Omega-NN interaction, demonstrating that it fits a Woods-Saxon function and yields binding energies consistent with previous findings, while further validating the methodology through a comparative analysis of the Ξ\Xi-α\alpha system.

Igor Filikhin, Roman Ya. Kezerashvili, Branislav Vlahovic2026-05-14⚛️ hep-lat