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.

⚛️ nuclear theory

Gravitational form factors of light mesons from Basis Light-Front Quantization

This paper computes the gravitational form factors of pion and kaon mesons using Basis Light-Front Quantization, finding agreement with lattice QCD for the $A(Q^2)$ form factor while observing an enhanced magnitude for the $D(Q^2)$ form factor at low momentum transfer due to zero-mode effects, and subsequently derives the mesons' mass and mechanical radii along with their internal pressure and shear-force distributions.

Amrita Sain, Sreeraj Nair, Chandan Mondal, Xingbo Zhao, James P. Vary2026-05-19

⚛️ 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 $^{18}$ C and $^{12}$ 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 $N=20$ island of inversion region for neutron-rich Ne, Mg, and Si isotopes.

Rohit M. Shinde, Praveen C. Srivastava2026-05-18

⚛️ nuclear experiments

Trace Anomaly of Cold Dense Matter Constrained by Collective Flow

This paper presents the first Bayesian extraction of the trace anomaly of cold dense matter from collective flow observables in heavy-ion collisions, demonstrating a quantitative agreement with independent astrophysical constraints from neutron stars and establishing a consistent macroscopic bridge between terrestrial and cosmic dense-matter environments.

Bao-An Li2026-05-18

⚛️ nuclear theory

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

⚛️ nuclear theory

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

This study investigates shape coexistence and mixing in the stable $^{96}$ Zr, $^{96}$ Mo, and $^{96}$ 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

⚛️ 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 $k_T$ 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

⚛️ nuclear theory

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 $^{229}$ Th, $^{83}$ Kr, and $^{45}$ 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

⚛️ nuclear experiments

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

⚛️ nuclear theory

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

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