Nuclear Theory·nucl-th

Thursday·September 4, 2025

19 papers—9 primary·10 cross-listed

10
Two-flavor chirally imbalanced quark matter beyond large $N_{c}$
André G. da Silva🇧🇷 · Dyana C. Duarte🇧🇷 · Ricardo L. S. Farias🇧🇷 · Marcus Benghi Pinto🇧🇷 · Rudnei O. Ramos🇧🇷 · William R. Tavares🇧🇷
We investigate a chirally imbalanced medium in the context of the two-flavor Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model using both the large- $N_{c}$ (LN) and beyond large- $N_{c}$ (BLN) approximations. To incorporate BLN effects, we consider the optimized perturbation theory (OPT) to the first nontrivial order, which includes two-loop (exchange) contributions. This procedure allows us to explicitly explore how finite $N_{c}$ corrections affect the thermodynamics as well as the phase diagram of chirally imbalanced quark matter. We then compare the results obtained with a sharp three-dimensional cutoff -- generically referred to as the traditional regularization scheme -- and with an alternative procedure called the medium separation scheme (MSS). In the first case, we observe that the pseudocritical temperature decreases as the chiral chemical potential increases, an effect dubbed inverse chiral catalysis. On the other hand, when considering the MSS regularization, which properly isolates the medium contributions from the vacuum, we find the opposite result. We show that the results obtained with MSS are consistent with well-established LQCD data in both the LN and BLN approximations. Finally, we suggest that to cope with the high-density limit, the standard OPT interpolation prescription must be modified with the inclusion of an extra variational parameter.
↳ hep-phhep-thnucl-thPRD(2025)·6 citations
11
Revisiting the first-order QCD phase transition in dense strong interaction matter
Yi Lu🇨🇳 · Fei Gao🇨🇳 · Yu-xin Liu🇨🇳
We revisit the phase structure and thermodynamics of QCD in the low temperature and high density region, where a strong, first-order phase transition is expected beyond the critical end point. By solving the quark gap equation in the continuum QCD approach, we reveal the coexistence of the multi-phases both in the microscopic dynamics of chiral symmetry breaking and also in the thermodynamic observables, which manifests the existence of spinodal decomposition during the first-order QCD phase transitions. We also analyse the interface structure of the co-exist Nambu and Wigner phases in the isothermal process during the first-order transition. In particular, the interface tension and interface entropy density are extracted from the isothermal trajectories, which further allows for an analysis on the formation of nuclear bubble, including the bubble radius and its stability at different temperatures. Our predictions may serve as useful inputs for further investigations in heavy-ion physics or astrophysics research.
↳ hep-phhep-thnucl-th2 citations
12
Lee--Yang edge singularities in Nonlocal Nambu--Jona-Lasinio Model
Zong-shuai Zhang🇨🇳 · Yi Lu🇨🇳 · Yu-xin Liu🇨🇳
We investigate the QCD phase diagram and the associated Lee--Yang edge singularities using the two-flavor nonlocal Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model extended to complex chemical potential. There exists a strong correlation between the chiral phase transition and the structure of the effective potential in the complex order parameter plane, serving as a criterion to differentiate crossover from first-order transitions. Typically, the Lee--Yang edge singularities can be understood as a generalization of the critical end-point (CEP) between crossover and first-order transitions, where the positive Nambu phase and the Wigner phase coalesce. We further analyze the scaling behavior near the CEP by extracting the critical exponent associated with the Lee--Yang singularities. Additionally, we confirm that the extrapolation of the Lee--Yang edge singularity trajectories provides an effective method of determining the CEP location, even at a small real chemical potential. This provides a viable method for exploring regions of the QCD phase diagram that remain inaccessible to lattice QCD.
↳ hep-phhep-thnucl-thPRD(2026)·2 citations
13
The role of the soft scale for $J / ψ$ production in the transverse momentum dependent framework
Marston Copeland🇺🇸 · Sean Fleming🇺🇸 · Reed Hodges🇺🇸
We use vNRQCD to study power corrections in the $v$ expansion due to soft gluon radiation during $J / ψ$ production at small transverse momentum. We categorize four new $J / ψ$ production operators that mediate the transition of perturbatively produced color-octet charm quark/anti-quark pairs to charm quarks in a $^{3} S_{1}^{[1]}$ state via soft gluon emission. We then use Soft Collinear Effective Theory and vNRQCD to derive a factorization theorem for $J / ψ$ production in SIDIS in terms of the gluon transverse momentum dependent (TMD) PDFs in the proton and new objects which we call TMD soft transition functions. We show that the TMD soft transition function leads in the $v$ power-counting with respect to the color-octet TMD shape functions that have been used in previous studies of $J / ψ$ production at small transverse momentum.
↳ hep-phhep-thnucl-th7 citations
14
Kilonovae and Long-duration Gamma-ray Bursts
Marko Ristić🇺🇸 · Brandon L. Barker🇺🇸 · Samuel Cupp🇺🇸 · Axel Gross🇺🇸 · Nicole Lloyd-Ronning🇺🇸 · Oleg Korobkin🇺🇸 · Jonah M. Miller🇺🇸 · Matthew R. Mumpower🇺🇸
Recent detections of kilonova-like emission following long-duration gamma-ray bursts GRB211211A and GRB230307A have been interpreted as originating from the merger of two neutron stars. In this work, we demonstrate that these observations are also consistent with nucleosynthesis originating from a collapsar scenario. Our model accurately predicts the observed optical and infrared light curves using a single weak $r$ -process component. The absence of lanthanide-rich material in our model, consistent with the data, challenges the prevailing interpretation that a red evolution in such transients necessarily indicates the presence of heavy $r$ -process elements.
↳ astro-ph.HEnucl-thApJL(2026)·6 citations
15
Recent progress on charmed hadron interactions from lattice QCD
Yan Lyu🇯🇵
Recent years have witnessed rapid progress in charmed hadron physics, driven by numerous experimental discoveries of exotic states such as $T_{cc}^{+}$ and $P_{c}$ . These findings have highlighted the importance of understanding charmed hadron interactions. With significant advances in theory and computation, lattice QCD has become a reliable tool for studying nonperturbative dynamics of low-energy QCD. In this talk, I review recent lattice QCD studies of charmed hadron interactions, focusing on three representative systems: $D^{*}$ - $D$ , $N$ - $c c ˉ$ , and $Ω_{ccc}$ - $Ω_{ccc}$ .
↳ hep-lathep-phnucl-thPoS(2026)·1 citation
16
Confronting the production mechanisms of nuclei with deuteron and proton-triggered balance functions
Sushanta Tripathy🇸🇪 · Peter Christiansen🇸🇪
In ultra high-energy collisions, nuclei with very low binding energies are not expected to survive the dense and hot final state environment. The traditional view has therefore been that nuclei form via coalescence after the hot environment has dissipated. However, statistical thermal models, where hadrons are produced from a fireball at thermal equilibrium, can describe the relative abundances of light nuclei in pp and heavy-ion collisions at the LHC equally well. In this paper we investigate if balance functions triggered by protons and deuterons can be used to distinguish between the two production mechanisms. The coalescence model is investigated using PYTHIA, while the statistical thermal model is examined using the Thermal FIST package. We find that for both models the same simple relation between proton and deuteron triggered balance functions is applicable. However, there is a striking difference between the two models when the transverse momentum of trigger particles is varied. This dependence offers a promising observable to discriminate between the two production scenarios that goes beyond nuclei production. Furthermore, we find that deuteron-meson balance functions vanish identically for both models due to baryon number conservation and isospin symmetry.
↳ hep-phhep-exnucl-thEPJC(2026)·2 citations
17
Parquet theory for molecular systems: Formalism and static kernel parquet approximation
Antoine Marie · Pierre-François Loos
The $G W$ approximation has become a method of choice for predicting quasiparticle properties in solids and large molecular systems, owing to its favorable accuracy-cost balance. However, its accuracy is the result of a fortuitous cancellation of vertex corrections in the polarizability and self-energy. Hence, when attempting to go beyond $G W$ through inclusion of vertex corrections, the accuracy can deteriorate if this delicate balance is disrupted. In this work, we explore an alternative route that theoretically goes beyond $G W$ : the parquet formalism. Unlike approaches that focus on a single correlation channel, such as the electron-hole channel in $G W$ or the particle-particle channel in $T$ -matrix theory, parquet theory treats all two-body scattering channels on an equal footing. We present the formal structure of the parquet equations, which couple the one-body Green's function, the self-energy, and the two-body vertex. We discuss the approximations necessary to solve this set of equations, the advantages and limitations of this approach, outline its implementation for molecular systems, and assess its accuracy for principal ionization potentials of small molecular systems.
↳ physics.chem-phcond-mat.mtrl-scicond-mat.str-elmath-ph+2J.Chem.Phys.(2025)·1 citation
18
Wigner function of a rigidly rotating and magnetized QED plasma
M. Kiamari🇮🇷 · N. Sadooghi🇮🇷
We determine the Wigner function of a rigidly rotating quantum electrodynamics (QED) plasma in the presence of a constant magnetic field by utilizing the Riemannian normal coordinate approximation, which has been previously proposed in the literature. In this approach, the angular velocity appears only in a specific phase factor, allowing us to compute the point-split fermion two-point correlation function in flat spacetime. To ensure that the fermion correlation function is gauge invariant, we introduce a background gauge field that is fixed to produce a constant magnetic field. Using this Wigner function, we derive the energy-momentum tensor for this medium, which consists of both diagonal and off-diagonal components. By comparing our results with the energy-momentum tensor of an ideal spinful and vortical magnetized fluid, we establish a connection between these components and thermodynamic quantities, such as energy density and different types of pressure. We demonstrate that rigid rotation leads to pressure anisotropy in plasma. Additionally, we compute the associated vector and axial vector currents for this medium, utilizing the previously presented Wigner function. Our results are consistent with existing literature on the subject.
↳ nucl-thgr-qchep-phhep-th3 citations
19
Gluon Condensate via Dirac Spectral Density: IR Phase, Scale Anomaly and IR Decoupling
Ivan Horváth🇺🇸
Quark and gluon scalar densities, $⟨ ψ ˉ ψ ⟩$ and $⟨ F^{2} ⟩$ , reflect the degree of scale-invariance violations in SU(N) gauge theories with fundamental quarks. It is known that $⟨ ψ ˉ ψ ⟩$ can be usefully scale-decomposed via spectral density $ρ (λ)$ of Dirac modes. Here I give such formula for $⟨ F^{2} ⟩$ , which reveals that gluon condensate is a strictly UV quantity. For the recently-found IR phase [1,2], where the infrared (IR) degrees of freedom separate out and become independent of the system's bulk, it implies that $⟨ F^{2} ⟩$ due to this IR part vanishes. Its glue thus doesn't contribute to scale anomaly of the entire system and is, in this sense, scale invariant consistently with the original claim. Associated formulas are used to define IR decoupling of glue, which may serve as an alternative indicator of IR phase transition. Using the simplest form of coherent lattice QCD, we express the effective action of full QCD entirely via Dirac spectral density.
↳ hep-lathep-phhep-thnucl-thPRD(2025)·1 citation

Affiliations

first authorsco-authorsvia INSPIRE