1159 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.
This paper presents a fully microscopic multichannel Resonating Group Method description of the 12C+12C fusion reaction at stellar energies, which successfully reproduces experimental scattering data, reveals the mixed nature of 24Mg resonances, predicts fusion hindrance at low energies, and lays the groundwork for reliable theoretical extrapolations to deep stellar burning temperatures.
This study demonstrates that the appearance of isobars in neutron stars can trigger a first-order phase transition that mimics the mass-radius, tidal deformability, and gravitational-wave asteroseismology signatures typically attributed to quark deconfinement, thereby extending the "masquerade problem" to dynamic observables and suggesting that detecting such features alone is insufficient to confirm the presence of quark matter.
This paper analyzes mid-2000s Jefferson Lab electron scattering data using a scaling variable that accounts for dynamical effects to demonstrate a linear correlation between the slope of inclusive cross-section ratios and the average nucleon removal energy, thereby highlighting the critical role of correlation effects in nuclear binding and the EMC effect.
This paper applies a novel background field method based on the Feynman-Hellmann theorem to calculate the electromagnetic form factors of the -meson, providing a first effective field theory estimate that highlights substantial contact contributions and outlining a procedure for future ab initio lattice calculations.
This study utilizes the GiBUU framework to demonstrate that while pion final-state interactions have a moderate impact on proton decay search sensitivity in water Cherenkov detectors, the choice of Fermi momentum distribution constitutes the dominant systematic uncertainty affecting atmospheric neutrino background estimates.
This paper presents a finite-size scaling analysis of the chiral order parameter in (2+1)-flavor QCD using HISQ lattice data, demonstrating that infinite-volume extrapolated results align with expected scaling behavior while quantifying finite-size deviations to improve the precision of chiral phase transition temperature determinations.
Using a top-down holographic construction from string theory, this paper demonstrates that the onset of hydrodynamic behavior in a hot, dense, strongly coupled fluid undergoing Bjorken expansion is significantly delayed as the system's chemical potential-to-temperature ratio approaches its critical value.
This paper presents a unified theoretical description of experimental data for decays into and accompanied by pion or kaon pairs, utilizing unitary and analytic final-state interactions to reveal universal coupling patterns, a distinct non-charmonium nature for the , and the significant role of the resonance while predicting related branching fraction ratios and invariant mass distributions.
Motivated by recent work, this paper derives simple analytical spectral functions for two-pion exchange nucleon-nucleon potentials involving single and double Roper resonance excitation, as well as combined and Roper excitation, and uses subtracted dispersion relations to obtain momentum-space potentials that incorporate regulator functions to control high-momentum components.
This paper presents a thermodynamically consistent reformulation of the hadron resonance gas model using excluded-volume corrections and a liquid-drop inspired mass-radius relation, which successfully reproduces lattice QCD results for conserved-charge susceptibilities with only two adjustable parameters.