Nuclear Theory·nucl-th

Tuesday·December 16, 2025

15 papers—7 primary·8 cross-listed

01
[Submitted on 14 Dec 2025]
Variations of two-neutron separation energies and thermal-neutron capture cross sections versus the pairing gap
Hossein Emami · Hadi Sabri
In this work, we investigate the experimental correlation between the pairing gap values and two important observables in the study of nuclear structure (two neutron separation energies and thermal-neutron capture cross-sections). To this aim, we focused on the even-even nuclei in the vicinity of Z=50 and Z = 82 closed proton shells, for which the quantum phase transition phenomena are reported. The results show a significant correlation between the pairing gap and the well-known signatures of quantum phase transitions in the nuclei, which are the candidates for E(5) and X(5) critical points. Also, we have explained the special relation between the pairing gap and the cross-section of thermal neutrons in the considered isotopic chains.
Subjects:
Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
arXiv:
2512.12665 [pdf]
0 citations
02
[Submitted on 14 Dec 2025]
Emergence of thermal recoil jets in high-energy heavy-ion collisions
Peng Jing🇨🇳 · Yichao Dang🇨🇳 · Yang He🇨🇳 · Shanshan Cao🇨🇳 · Li Yi🇨🇳 · Xin-Nian Wang🇨🇳
In the established paradigm of jet quenching in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, jets from initial hard parton scatterings are suppressed due to their interaction with the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) as they traverse the hot medium, serving as crucial tomographic probes of QGP properties. The QGP is also capable of absorbing and reprocessing energy deposited by the hard jets into emergent jet-like objects, providing a novel production mechanism of thermal recoil jets. These emergent thermal recoil jets exhibit distinct transverse momentum ( $p_{T}$ ) and jet-size ( $R$ ) dependencies different from the hard jets, and naturally explain the puzzling observation of the enhanced yields of hadron or photon triggered jets at large azimuthal angle and solely at small $p_{T}$ and large $R$ . These thermal recoil jets are predicted to have unique substructures, such as their jet shape that increases with the radius and the thermal-like distribution of their constituents, which can be verified in future experimental analyses.
Comments:
6 pages, 5 figures
Subjects:
Nuclear Theory (nucl-th); High Energy Physics — Phenomenology (hep-ph); Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex)
arXiv:
2512.12715 [pdf]
4 citations
03
[Submitted on 14 Dec 2025]
Single-step Quantum Simulation of Two Nucleons
Bhoomika Maheshwari🇫🇷 · Paul Stevenson🇬🇧 · P. Van Isacker🇫🇷
Quantum computing offers a scalable approach to solving the nuclear shell model, a highly complex and exponentially scaled many-body problem. This work presents a numerical simulation of the subspace search variational quantum eigensolver (SSVQE) combined with an adaptive derivative-assembles pseudo-trotter (ADAPT) ansatz to obtain the low-lying states of any nuclear system in a single optimization run. As an example, we apply this method in this work to a trivial identical nucleon system, two nucleons in the $0 p_{3/2}$ orbital, mapped to 4 qubits depicting m-scheme single-particle states including a surface delta effective interaction using the Jordan-Wigner transformation. The ADAPT-SSVQE algorithm, by utilizing a symmetry-preserving double-excitation ADAPT operator pool, uniquely optimizes a weighted energy sum, forcing the simultaneous convergence of two lowest states within the total angular momentum $M_{J} = 0$ subspace. We demonstrate the accuracy of the method by benchmarking against the exact diagonalization, confirming its potential for probing nuclear structure and pairing phenomena on current and near-future quantum devices without requiring multi-step procedure for excited states.
Comments:
To Appear in Acta Physica Polonica B (Special Issue dedicated to Mazurian Lakes Conference 2025)
Subjects:
Nuclear Theory (nucl-th); High Energy Physics — Theory (hep-th); Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex); Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
arXiv:
2512.12798 [pdf]
Acta Phys.Polon.Supp.(2026)·2 citations
04
[Submitted on 14 Dec 2025]
$n α$ Elastic Scattering: An Application of Variable Phase Approach to Local Potential
Anil Khachi
Distance-dependent phase shifts, amplitude functions, and radial wave functions for neutron-alpha elastic scattering are studied using the Variable Phase Approach. The microscopic KKNN potential is employed to calculate scattering properties for the $S_{1/2}$ , $P_{3/2}$ , and $P_{1/2}$ partial waves over a range of laboratory energies. The variable phase equations are solved numerically using a fifth-order Runge-Kutta method, allowing a direct examination of how the nuclear interaction generates the scattering phase within the finite interaction region. The results exhibit physically consistent behavior of the phase shifts and yield well-behaved amplitude and wave functions. This study demonstrates that the Variable Phase Approach provides a physically transparent and reliable framework for describing neutron-alpha elastic scattering and for applications in inverse scattering problems.
Subjects:
Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
arXiv:
2512.12807 [pdf]
0 citations
05
[Submitted on 14 Dec 2025]
Perturbative EFT calculation of the deuteron longitudinal response function
Andrew J. Andis🇺🇸 · Songlin Lyu🇮🇹 · Bingwei Long🇨🇳 · Sebastian König🇺🇸
In this work, we study the longitudinal response function of the deuteron up to next-to-next-to-leading order in chiral effective field theory (Chiral EFT). We use an approach that maintains exact renormalization group (RG) invariance at each order of the EFT expansion by treating all subleading corrections in perturbation theory. To that end, we extent the Lorentz Integral Transform (LIT) method to allow for such a perturbative treatment. In doing so, we further develop the existing work on strictly RG invariant Chiral EFT, which has so far focused primarily on binding energies and static properties, to inelastic processes. We carefully analyze the convergence properties of the theory and find good agreement with available experimental data. Our findings provide the foundation for similar studies of inelastic processes in a range of nuclei, based on perturbatively renormalized EFT schemes.
Comments:
20 pages, 8 figures
Subjects:
Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
arXiv:
2512.12823 [pdf]
3 citations
06
[Submitted on 14 Dec 2025]
Local Quantum Cooling for Large Fermi Systems with Pairing
J. E. Alba-Arroyo · Daniel Pęcak · Michael McNeil Forbes · Gabriel Wlazłowski
We present a framework for local quantum cooling that can be efficiently applied to large-scale Fermi systems. The method introduces local Hermitian operators as a cooling potential while strictly preserving the unitarity of time evolution. Our formulation scales favorably with system size and can be seamlessly integrated into time-dependent density-functional theory frameworks. We demonstrate that energy cooling arises from the damping of particle currents and pairing-field fluctuations. Furthermore, we develop a variant of the scheme that allows the particle number to vary in time, enabling controlled density scans. The method is generic and versatile, as illustrated by applications to spin-imbalanced unitary Fermi gases and to nuclear matter in the neutron-star crust. The framework can be naturally extended to include stochastic noise, providing a foundation for studying thermalization in strongly interacting Fermi superfluids.
Comments:
17 pages, 10 figures
Subjects:
Nuclear Theory (nucl-th); Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas)
arXiv:
2512.12866 [pdf]
PRC(2026)·0 citations
07
[Submitted on 15 Dec 2025]
Shell model study of isobaric analog states for $T_{z} = \pm 2$ nuclei using isospin non-conserving interactions
Sakshi Shukla · Praveen C. Srivastava · Kazunari Kaneko
In order to comprehend the process underlying mirror energy differences in mirror pairs, we have performed shell-model calculations for $T_{z} = \pm 2$ $s d$ -shell nuclei in the mass range $A$ = 20 to 36 and neutron number varying from $N$ = 8 to 20. Isospin-symmetry breaking (ISB) is responsible for the mirror energy difference of excited states. We have investigated the {\color{black}isospin non-conserving} interactions: USDC and USDCm to explore the low-lying energy spectra, mirror energy differences, isoscalar ( $M_{0}$ ), isovector ( $M_{1}$ ) matrix elements, \textit{E2} transition probability, magnetic ( $μ$ ), and quadrupole moments ( $Q$ ) of mirror-pair and compared them with their available experimental data. The impact of single-particle states on weakly bound and unbound nuclear states are investigated, especially those of the $s$ -wave. We have also analyzed single proton/neutron separation energies and proton/neutron occupancy for ( $T_{z}$ =-2)/( $T_{z}$ =+2) $s d$ -shell nuclei.
Comments:
Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics (accepted)
Subjects:
Nuclear Theory (nucl-th); Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex)
arXiv:
2512.13322 [pdf]
J.Phys.G(2026)·1 citation
08
[Submitted on 9 Dec 2024] (cross-list from hep-ph)
Jet momentum reconstruction in the QGP background with machine learning
Ran Li🇨🇳 · Yi-Lun Du🇨🇳 · Shanshan Cao🇨🇳
We apply a Dense Neural Network (DNN) approach to reconstruct jet momentum within a quark-gluon plasma (QGP) background, using simulated data from PYTHIA and Linear Boltzmann Transport (LBT) Models for comparative analysis. We find that medium response particles from the LBT simulation, scattered out of the QGP background but belonging to medium-modified jets, lead to oversubtraction of the background if the DNN model is trained on vacuum jets from PYTHIA simulation. By training the DNN model on quenched jets generated using LBT or the combination of jet samples from PYTHIA and LBT, we significantly reduce this prediction bias and achieve more accurate background subtraction compared to conventional Area-based and Constituent Subtraction methods widely adopted in experimental measurements. We further study the performance of these machine learning models on evaluating the nuclear modification factor of jets, and find that while the unfolding procedure is necessary for correcting residuals in reconstructed jet momenta, models trained on samples incorporating quenched jets still achieve superior accuracy than those trained on vacuum jets even after unfolding.
Comments:
12 pages, 8 figures, 1 table. Updated version for the publication in PLB
Subjects:
High Energy Physics — Phenomenology (hep-ph); Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex); Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
arXiv:
2412.06466 [pdf]
PLB(2025)·3 citations
09
[Submitted on 11 Dec 2025] (cross-list from hep-ph)
Dynamical study of hidden-strange pentaquarks as analogs of the hidden-charm states
Xuejie Liu🇨🇳 · Yue Tan🇨🇳 · Yuheng Wu🇨🇳 · Dianyong Chen🇨🇳 · Hongxia Huang🇨🇳 · Jialun Ping🇨🇳
Motivated by the recent BESIII experiment~\cite{BESIII:2024muk} searching for hidden-strange exotic hadrons, we perform a systematic theoretical study of the hidden-strange pentaquark system within the framework of the quark delocalization color screening model (QDCSM) and the resonating group method (RGM). Our results demonstrate that the channel coupling effect plays a decisive role in the formation of bound and resonance states. It not only significantly enhances the short-range attraction but also induces essential attractive contributions from pion exchange. We predict three bound states with masses of $1759$ MeV, $2000$ MeV, and $2407$ MeV. Furthermore, we report the existence of a hidden-strange pentaquark resonance state, $Ξ K^{*}$ , with quantum numbers $I (J^{P}) = 0 (1/ 2^{-})$ . This resonance is identified in the $S$ -wave scattering phase shifts of the $Λ η_{s}$ and $Λ ϕ$ open channels, with a predicted mass in the range of $2204 - 2208$ MeV. By accounting for both the scattering width from channel coupling and the intrinsic decay width of the constituent $K^{*}$ , the total decay width is estimated to be $55 - 63$ MeV. These theoretical predictions provide important guidance for future experimental searches for such exotic states at facilities like BESIII.
Subjects:
High Energy Physics — Phenomenology (hep-ph); Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
arXiv:
2512.11915 [pdf]
EPJC(2026)·1 citation
10
[Submitted on 12 Dec 2025] (cross-list from hep-ph)
From DGLAP to Sudakov: Precision Predictions for Energy-Energy Correlators
Max Jaarsma🇳🇱 · Yibei Li🇩🇪 · Ian Moult🇺🇸 · Wouter J. Waalewijn🇳🇱 · Hua Xing Zhu🇨🇳
Correlations in the distribution of energy produced in collider experiments provide a snapshot of the microscopic dynamics of QCD, and its evolution from asymptotically free quarks and gluons, to confined hadrons. There has recently been considerable progress in the interpretation and precision calculation of these correlations, using a specific class of observables called energy correlators (EECs). These observables are most cleanly studied in $e^{+} e^{-}$ collisions, where they can be measured over their full angular range. Of particular interest are kinematic limits of the correlator, both collinear, and back-to-back, where the correlator exhibits scaling behaviors governed by specific operators in QCD. Resolving these scalings requires measurements with exceptional angular resolution, which can be achieved by performing measurements on tracks (charged particles). In this paper we perform the first calculation of the track-based EEC over its entire kinematic range, achieving a record precision of of NNLL (collinear) + NNLO (fixed order) + NNNNLL (back-to-back) for the track-based EEC, and additionally incorporate the leading non-perturbative corrections and their resummation, including the Collins-Soper kernel computed using lattice QCD. We describe the breadth of physics probed by this observable, and highlight the impact of different components of our factorization theorem on the final distribution. Combined with recent measurements of the track-based EEC with archival LEP data, our calculation initiates the precision study of track-based observables at LEP, which will lead to new insights into the dynamics of QCD, and the precision extraction of its underlying parameters.
Comments:
94 pages, 21 figures
Subjects:
High Energy Physics — Phenomenology (hep-ph); High Energy Physics — Experiment (hep-ex); High Energy Physics — Theory (hep-th); Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex); Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
arXiv:
2512.11950 [pdf]
23 citations
11
[Submitted on 12 Dec 2025] (cross-list from hep-ph)
Directional dead-cone effect in QCD matter
João Barata🇨🇭 · Matvey V. Kuzmin🇪🇸 · Xoán Mayo López🇪🇸 · Andrey V. Sadofyev🇪🇸 · Carlos A. Salgado🇪🇸
We consider the propagation of heavy quarks through a dense, hydrodynamically flowing QCD medium, representative of the quark-gluon plasma formed in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. Working in the high-energy limit, we identify two novel mass-dependent effects arising from the heavy quark coupling to the local medium flow. The first is the emergence of a tensorial jet transport coefficient, $q^_{ij}$ , which encodes the directional structure of transverse-momentum broadening. The second, named the directional dead-cone effect, corresponds to an anisotropic suppression of medium-induced radiation aligned with the hydrodynamic flow. We discuss how these effects manifest in jet observables and identify distinctive signature of heavy quark dynamics in an evolving medium.
Comments:
13 pages, 4 figures
Subjects:
High Energy Physics — Phenomenology (hep-ph); High Energy Physics — Experiment (hep-ex); Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
arXiv:
2512.11951 [pdf]
5 citations
12
[Submitted on 12 Dec 2025] (cross-list from hep-ph)
Renormalization Group Evolution for In-medium Energy Correlators
Weiyao Ke🇨🇳 · Bianka Mecaj🇺🇸 · Ivan Vitev🇺🇸
We present a first-principles analysis of the renormalization group (RG) evolution of the two-point energy-energy correlator (EEC) in light-quark and gluon jets propagating through nuclear matter. Our work focuses on the analytic structure of the RG equations in the thin-medium regime, highlighting how collinear emissions in the presence of a dense QCD medium reshape the EEC observables. We work in the opacity expansion of the SCET $_{G}$ formalism, where the propagating quarks and gluons interact with the medium via Glauber gluon exchanges. We compute the corresponding one-loop jet functions using the medium-induced splitting kernels at first order in opacity and perform resummation at leading logarithmic (LL) order. In particular, we identify an experimentally accessible regime of jet energies and EEC angles where one can directly investigate the medium-induced scale evolution and extract the corresponding opacity-one correction to the anomalous dimensions. Furthermore, we demonstrate analytically, using the method of regions, the Coulomb-logarithmic enhancement regulated by plasma screening for EEC. We compare our theoretical predictions with experimental data in $p$ -Pb collisions and make projections for O-O collisions to test whether energy correlators could serve as sensitive probe of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) dynamics in small collision systems, offering a robust and model-independent avenue for constraining jet evolution in QCD matter.
Comments:
57 Pages, 11 figures. Version to appear in JHEP: typos corrected, references added
Subjects:
High Energy Physics — Phenomenology (hep-ph); Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
arXiv:
2512.11952 [pdf]
JHEP(2026)·12 citations
13
[Submitted on 13 Dec 2025] (cross-list from hep-th)
Relativistic Dispersion Spectra across Lorentz boosted frames: Spurious modes and the enigma of causality
Sayantani Bhattacharyya🇬🇧 · Sukanya Mitra🇮🇳 · Shuvayu Roy🇮🇳 · Rajeev Singh🇷🇴
The analysis of excitation spectra in gradient-expanded relativistic fluid theories frequently leads to pathologies under Lorentz boosts. However, extracting the dispersion modes in a Lorentz boosted inertial frame can be nontrivial. Motivated by this problem, we develop a general framework for deriving the linearized dispersion spectra in Lorentz boosted frames using only information from the local rest-frame dispersion structure, particularly its mode-expansion coefficients. We observe that, under a Lorentz transformation from the local rest frame, additional boosted solutions may appear that conflict with the causality of the theory; we refer to these as "spurious modes." The key developments presented here are: (i) a convenient method for obtaining dispersion spectra across inertial frames, bypassing the traditional procedure of solving the boosted polynomial, and (ii) the establishment of a direct connection between mode conservation and the causality of a theory, supported by a detailed proof.
Comments:
36 pages. Matches published version in JHEP
Subjects:
High Energy Physics — Theory (hep-th); General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc); High Energy Physics — Phenomenology (hep-ph); Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
arXiv:
2512.12450 [pdf]
JHEP(2026)·4 citations
14
[Submitted on 15 Dec 2025] (cross-list from hep-ph)
Sign Reversal of Boer-Mulders Functions from Semi-inclusive Deep-Inelastic Scattering to the Drell-Yan Process
Jen-Chieh Peng🇺🇸 · Ming-Xiong Liu🇺🇸 · Guanghua Xu🇺🇸
A striking prediction of QCD on the properties of the novel Transverse Momentum Dependent (TMD) distribution functions is that the time-reversal odd Sivers and Boer-Mulders functions extracted from semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (SIDIS) will undergo a sign reversal in the Drell-Yan (DY) process. This prediction has been tested by experiments that have focused on the Sivers functions so far. We examine the current status on the theoretical prediction and experimental extraction of the signs of the Boer-Mulders functions from SIDIS and DY. We show that the existing SIDIS and DY data are consistent with the predicted sign reversal of the Boer-Mulders functions for proton's valence quark distribution. Prospects for future experiments at EIC capable of testing the sign reversal of the pion Boer-Mulders functions are also discussed.
Comments:
7 pages, 2 figures, updated version
Subjects:
High Energy Physics — Phenomenology (hep-ph); Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex); Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
arXiv:
2512.12955 [pdf]
PLB(2026)·1 citation
15
[Submitted on 15 Dec 2025] (cross-list from hep-ph)
Probing the pion gluon distribution at small- $x$ in photon-induced interactions at LHC
Victor P. Goncalves🇧🇷 · Juciene T. de Souza🇧🇷 · Diego Spiering🇧🇷
In this paper we propose the analysis of the heavy quark photoproduction associated with a leading neutron in hadronic collisions at the LHC as an alternative to probe the pion gluon distribution in a kinematical range not covered by previous experiments. We perform an exploratory study of the charm and bottom photoproduction associated with a leading neutron in proton-proton ( $pp$ ) and proton-lead ( $pP b$ ) collisions, and present calculations for the rapidity distributions and cross-sections. Our predictions indicate that experimental studies of these processes are feasible, and that a future measurement of this final state will be useful to constrain the pion gluon distribution at small values of the Bjorken $x$ variable and to improve our understanding of the pion structure.
Comments:
12 pages, 6 figures, 1 table. Version published in PRD
Subjects:
High Energy Physics — Phenomenology (hep-ph); High Energy Physics — Experiment (hep-ex); Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex); Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
arXiv:
2512.13257 [pdf]
PRD(2026)·1 citation

Affiliations

first authorsco-authorsvia INSPIRE