Nuclear Theory·nucl-th

Friday·June 13, 2025

10 papers—4 primary·6 cross-listed

05
Locating the QCD critical point with neutron-star observations
Christian Ecker🇩🇪 · Niko Jokela🇫🇮 · Matti Järvinen🇰🇷
We present a probabilistic model for the QCD critical endpoint (CEP) and the equation of state (EOS) at $β$ -equilibrium, constrained by neutron-star observations. Using a hybrid framework that combines the holographic V-QCD model with an effective van der Waals description of nuclear matter, we generate a large ensemble of EOSs incorporating nuclear theory uncertainties. Constraining this ensemble with neutron-star mass-radius data and tidal deformability measurements from gravitational waves, we identify a strong first-order deconfinement transition at zero temperature, with a transition strength of $Δ n_{PT} / n_{0} = 3.7 5_{- 0.53}^{+ 0.70}$ and onset density $n_{PT} / n_{0} = 4. 9_{- 1.17}^{+ 1.33}$ . The resulting posterior yields $95%$ credible intervals for the CEP location: $μ_{crit} = 62 6_{- 179}^{+ 90} MeV$ , $T_{crit} = 11 9_{- 6}^{+ 14} MeV$ .
↳ astro-ph.HEgr-qchep-phhep-th+1PRD(2026)·23 citations
06
Baryon and Meson Excited States
L. David Roper (VTech)🇺🇸 · Igor Strakovsky (GWU)🇺🇸
The masses of fifteen baryon sets and twenty-four meson sets of three or more equal-quantum excited states are fitted by a simple two-parameter logarithm function, $M_{n} = α L n (n) + β$ , where $n$ is the level of radial excitation. The conjecture is made that accurately measured masses using Breat-Wigner PDG2024 data at fixed $J^{P}$ for baryons and $J^{P C}$ for mesons of all equal-quantum baryons (including LHCb exotic $P_{c c ˉ}^{+}$ s) and meson (including $s s ˉ$ , $s c ˉ$ , $c c ˉ$ , $c b ˉ$ , and $b b ˉ$ ) excited states are related by the logarithm function used here; at least for the mass range of currently known excited states. Thus, a universal mass equation for equal-quantum excited-states sets is presented. The masses of twelve baryon sets and sixteen meson sets, with only two equal-quantum excited states in each set, using Breit-Wigner PDG2024 masses and their uncertainties, are fitted by thr universal mass equation.
↳ hep-phhep-exnucl-exnucl-thPoS(2026)·0 citations
07
Unraveling the neutron skin thickness through jet charge in deep inelastic scattering
Shan-Liang Zhang🇨🇳 · Enke Wang🇨🇳 · Xin-Nian Wang🇨🇳 · Hongxi Xing🇨🇳
The neutron skin thickness in neutron-rich nuclei has traditionally been measured using elastic fixed target electron-nucleus scattering since the 1970s. In this paper, we propose a novel probe of the neutron skin thickness through deep inelastic scattering in electron-ion collisions, leveraging the intrinsic correlation between final-state jet charge distribution and initial-state partonic distributions in nucleons. Specifically, we demonstrate the sensitivity of jet charge distribution to the neutron skin thickness in $e$ +Pb collisions with varying centralities, and in isobar collisions of $e$ +Ru and $e$ +Zr. We predict a strong suppression of positive jet charge distribution and an enhancement for negative jet charge distribution in peripheral electron-ion collisions, revealing the neutron skin effect. This proposal can also be extended to photon and Z-boson tagged jet charge distribution in proton-nucleus collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, providing an alternative access to neutron skin thickness.
↳ hep-phhep-exnucl-exnucl-th4 citations
08
Extraction of Effective Parameters from Transverse Momentum Spectra of Heavy Quarkonia in Proton-Proton Collisions at the LHC
Peng-Cheng Zhang🇨🇳 · Hailong Zhu🇨🇳 · Fu-Hu Liu🇨🇳 · Khusniddin K. Olimov🇺🇿
The effective string tension ( $κ$ ) in the Schwinger mechanism and the effective temperature ( $T$ ) in Bose-Einstein statistics are extracted from the transverse momentum ( $p_{T}$ ) spectra of heavy quarkonia produced in proton-proton (p+p) collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Here, $T$ derived from the heavy quarkonium $p_{T}$ spectra also serves as the initial effective temperature (effective temperature at the initial stage) of small collision systems. This is because, despite the absence of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) formation during the collisions, which leaves $T$ largely unaffected by QGP-related effects, the initial geometric asymmetry and local partonic thermalization still induce radial and transverse flows, thereby contributing to an increase in $T$ . The effective parameters ( $κ$ and $T$ ) are obtained by fitting the experimental $p_{T}$ spectra of $J / ψ$ and $Υ (n S)$ ( $n = 1$ , 2, and 3) within various rapidity intervals, produced in p+p collisions at center-of-mass energies of $s = 13$ and 8 TeV, as measured by the LHCb Collaboration. It is found that the multi-component distribution structured within the framework of the Schwinger mechanism or Bose-Einstein statistics can effectively describe the heavy quarkonium $p_{T}$ spectra in small collision systems. With decreasing rapidity in the forward region, both $κ$ and $T$ increase, indicating a directly proportional relationship between them. Based on $κ$ , the average minimum strong force radius of participant quarks is determined.
↳ hep-phhep-exnucl-exnucl-thAdv.High Energy Phys.(2026)·0 citations
09
Electric conductivity and flavor diffusion in a viscous, resistive quark-gluon plasma for weak and strong magnetic fields
Ferdinando Frascà🇮🇹 · Andrea Beraudo🇮🇹 · Luca Del Zanna🇮🇹
We present a microscopic calculation of the electric conductivity and net-particle diffusion coefficients for a viscous and resistive ultra-relativistic plasma. Our results might be of interest for several astrophysical and cosmological problems, but the main physical application we have in mind is the hot deconfined matter produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Accordingly, as charged particles of the medium we take three species (flavors) of light (massless for the sake of simplicity) quarks -- $u$ , $d$ and $s$ -- and antiquarks, entailing the existence of three macroscopic conserved charges: baryon number $B$ , electric charge $Q$ and strangeness $S$ . Our results are valid both in a weakly and in a strongly-magnetized plasma, where the energy stored in the magnetic field is comparable to the one carried by the medium particles. Actually, for a conformal fluid, the behavior of the system only depends on the ratio between the thermal and the magnetic pressure, the so-called plasma beta-parameter, acting as a scaling variable. Our calculation, starting from a relativistic Boltzmann-Vlasov equation, is based on a generalized Chapman-Enskog approach in which space-time gradients and the local electric field are treated as first-order quantities in a perturbative expansion, while terms containing magnetic corrections are considered of zeroth order and hence self-consistently resummed. We find that, also in the strong-field limit, for each conserved charge a generalized Wiedemann-Franz law, connecting charge conductivity and diffusion coefficient, exists. However these transport coefficients acquire a non-trivial tensor structure, reflecting the development of a longitudinal, a transverse and a Hall current as a response to electric fields or density gradients.
↳ hep-phastro-ph.HEnucl-thEPJC(2025)·1 citation
10
Non-Abelian dynamics on a cube: improving quantum compilation through qudit-based simulations
Jacky Jiang🇨🇦 · Natalie Klco🇺🇸 · Olivia Di Matteo🇨🇦
Recent developments in mapping lattice gauge theories relevant to the Standard Model onto digital quantum computers identify scalable paths with well-defined quantum compilation challenges toward the continuum. As an entry point to these challenges, we address the simulation of SU(2) lattice gauge theory. Using qudit registers to encode the digitized gauge field, we provide quantum resource estimates, in terms of elementary qudit gates, for arbitrarily high local gauge field truncations. We then demonstrate an end-to-end simulation of real-time, qutrit-digitized SU(2) dynamics on a cube. Through optimizing the simulation, we improved circuit decompositions for uniformly-controlled qudit rotations, an algorithmic primitive for general applications of quantum computing. The decompositions also apply to mixed-dimensional qudit systems, which we found advantageous for compiling lattice gauge theory simulations. Furthermore, we parallelize the evolution of opposite faces in anticipation of similar opportunities arising in three-dimensional lattice volumes. This work details an ambitious executable for future qudit hardware and attests to the value of codesign strategies between lattice gauge theory simulation and quantum compilation.
↳ quant-phhep-latnucl-thPRD(2025)·18 citations

Affiliations

first authorsco-authorsvia INSPIRE

Locating the QCD critical point with neutron-star observations

Baryon and Meson Excited States

Unraveling the neutron skin thickness through jet charge in deep inelastic scattering

Extraction of Effective Parameters from Transverse Momentum Spectra of Heavy Quarkonia in Proton-Proton Collisions at the LHC

Electric conductivity and flavor diffusion in a viscous, resistive quark-gluon plasma for weak and strong magnetic fields

Non-Abelian dynamics on a cube: improving quantum compilation through qudit-based simulations

Affiliations