nucl-th papers | Gist.Science

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.

Quantum fluctuation energies over a spatially inhomogeneous field background in a chiral soliton model

This paper presents a systematic calculation of finite quantum fluctuation energies for quarks over a spatially inhomogeneous chiral soliton background by employing a Schwinger-based level summation scheme, solving the resulting Dirac equation to determine scattering phase shifts, and applying Born subtraction renormalization to numerically evaluate the energies across different parities and grand spins.

Jiarui Xia, Song Shu, Xiaogang Li2026-04-08⚛️ nucl-th

Two-neutrino $ββ$ decay to excited states at next-to-leading order

This paper calculates next-to-leading order nuclear matrix elements for two-neutrino double-beta decay to excited states in key isotopes using the nuclear shell model, finding that while NLO corrections are typically small, they can become significant due to leading-order cancellations, and that nuclear deformation and seniority structure critically influence the predicted half-lives.

Daniel Castillo, Dorian Frycz, Beatriz Benavente, Javier Menéndez2026-04-08⚛️ nucl-ex

Proper time expansions and glasma dynamics

This paper investigates methods to extend the validity of proper time expansions for modeling early-time glasma dynamics in heavy ion collisions, successfully increasing the reliable calculation time from approximately 0.05 fm/c to 0.08 fm/c.

Margaret E Carrington, Bryce T. Friesen, Doug Pickering, Shane Sangster, Kaene Soopramania2026-04-08⚛️ nucl-th

New Elementary Operator for Kaon Photoproduction on the Nucleon and Nuclei

This paper presents a new elementary operator for kaon photoproduction on nucleons and nuclei, developed within a Feynman diagrammatic framework and fitted to experimental data across six isospin channels, which incorporates numerous baryon resonances and is formulated in Pauli space to facilitate nonrelativistic nuclear applications.

Terry Mart, Jovan Alfian Djaja2026-04-08⚛️ nucl-th

Emergent chiral spin symmetry, non-perturbative dynamics and thermoparticles in hot QCD

This paper challenges established views on hot QCD by demonstrating that an intermediate phase exhibits emergent chiral spin symmetry with persistent mesonic excitations, and proposes that thermal quantum field theories are fundamentally composed of non-perturbative "thermoparticles" rather than perturbative degrees of freedom.

Owe Philipsen2026-04-08⚛️ hep-lat

Equilibrated fraction of QCD matter in high-energy oxygen--oxygen collisions

This study demonstrates that in high-energy oxygen-oxygen collisions at 5.36 TeV, the produced QCD matter only partially reaches local equilibrium, necessitating a core-corona framework rather than a purely hydrodynamic approach to accurately describe the dynamics, particularly the incomplete chemical equilibrium observed in strange baryon yields.

Naoya Ito, Tetsufumi Hirano2026-04-08⚛️ nucl-th

Multi-Quark Clustering in Neutron-Star Matter from Color-Spin Molecular Dynamics

Using color-spin molecular dynamics, this study reveals that neutron-star matter favors the formation of multi-quark clusters with integer baryon numbers over isolated quarks, while demonstrating that interactions between strange and light quarks significantly influence neutron-star radii, offering a potential pathway to constrain flavor-sector interactions through future observations.

Nobutoshi Yasutake, Yuta Mukobara, Aaron Park, Su Houng Lee, Toshiki Maruyama2026-04-08⚛️ nucl-th

Channel couplings redirect absorbed flux from peripheral loss to fusion in weakly bound nuclear reactions

This paper presents an exact flux identity derived from a complex-potential framework that partitions the absorption cross section into inner capture and peripheral loss, demonstrating that channel couplings in weakly bound nuclear reactions like $^6$ Li+ $^{209}$ Bi redirect absorbed flux from peripheral breakup to fusion above the barrier, thereby identifying peripheral losses as the primary cause of complete-fusion suppression.

Hao Liu, Jin Lei, Zhongzhou Ren2026-04-08⚛️ nucl-th

Probing the chiral magnetic effect via transverse spherocity event classification in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

This study demonstrates that using transverse spherocity to classify Pb+Pb collisions into isotropic and jetty topologies provides a cleaner and more reliable method for probing the Chiral Magnetic Effect by effectively suppressing flow-driven and resonance-decay backgrounds compared to traditional flow-vector-based approaches.

Somdeep Dey, Abhisek Saha2026-04-08⚛️ nucl-ex

Observation of nuclear suppression in coherent $\Upsilon$ (1S) photoproduction off heavy nuclei at the LHC

The CMS experiment at the LHC reports the first observation of nuclear suppression in coherent $\Upsilon$ (1S) photoproduction off heavy nuclei, measuring a nuclear gluon suppression factor of $R_\text{g}^\text{Pb} \approx 0.55$ at a high energy scale of $\mu^2 = 22.4$ GeV $^2$ and $x \approx 10^{-3}$ .

CMS Collaboration2026-04-08⚛️ nucl-ex

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