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Nuclear Theory·nucl-th

Wednesday·August 26, 2026

11 papers—4 primary·7 cross-listed

All11Primary4Cross-lists7
  1. 05

    [Submitted on 16 Aug 2026] (cross-list from hep-ph)

    Universality and Kinematic Dependence of Hadronization Effects in DIS Global Event Shapes

    Radja Boughezal🇺🇸 · Haotian Cao🇺🇸 · Zhong-Bo Kang🇺🇸 · Xiaohui Liu🇨🇳 · Sonny Mantry🇺🇸 · Frank Petriello🇺🇸

    We propose a unified framework for a combined global analysis to constrain leading hadronization effects across the 1-Jettiness class of global event shapes for Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS). We show that for the subclass of jet-based event shapes where the leading jet direction is determined dynamically event-by-event, the leading hadronization effects can acquire a non-trivial dependence on the hard scattering kinematics. However, this dependence is explicitly calculable, allowing for universality of leading hadronization effects in the 1-Jettiness class. The non-trivial kinematic dependence provides an independent lever arm for simultaneously constraining hadronization effects in the jet-based and DIS thrust event shapes. This universality, combined with the kinematic lever arm, could allow for including the typically ignored peak region, where hadronization effects are most severe, in precision extractions of the strong coupling. We demonstrate the need for such a unified treatment of hadronization effects through comparisons of theoretical predictions with simulation data.

    Subjects:
    High Energy Physics — Phenomenology (hep-ph); Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
    arXiv:
    2608.15898 [pdf]
    0 citations
  2. 06

    [Submitted on 24 Aug 2026] (cross-list from hep-ph)

    Femtoscale imaging of the proton with Ioffe-time distributions

    Robert G. Edwards🇺🇸 · Joe Karpie🇺🇸 · Christopher Monahan🇺🇸 · Kostas Orginos🇺🇸 · Anatoly Radyushkin🇺🇸 · David Richards🇺🇸 · Eloy Romero🇫🇷 · Savvas Zafeiropoulos🇫🇷

    Mapping how strongly interacting constituents are distributed within protons is a key goal of nuclear physics and a major direction of the future Electron Ion Collider program. We propose a novel space-time description of hadron structure in terms of impact-parameter Ioffe-time distributions, relating spatial density in the plane transverse to the proton momentum and the time between the probe's absorption and the product's emission in the longitudinal direction. Using lattice Quantum Chromodynamics, we perform the first calculation of the Ioffe-time-dependent mean squared proton radii and compare our results with estimates in the Goloskokov-Kroll model. We derive a relationship between the experimentally measurable Compton form factor and the generalized Ioffe-time distribution, which allows us to perform the first extraction of the Compton form factor from lattice calculations.

    Comments:
    9 pages, 7 figures
    Subjects:
    High Energy Physics — Phenomenology (hep-ph); High Energy Physics — Lattice (hep-lat); Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
    arXiv:
    2608.23737 [pdf]
    0 citations
  3. 07

    [Submitted on 24 Aug 2026] (cross-list from hep-ph)

    Neuro-dispersive extractions of light-meson resonances

    Wyatt A. Smith🇺🇸 · Arkaitz Rodas🇺🇸 · Marius D. Thomas🇺🇸 · César Fernández-Ramírez🇪🇸 · Giorgio Foti🇮🇹 · Lin Qiu🇺🇸 · Adam P. Szczepaniak🇺🇸 · Alessandro Pilloni🇮🇹

    We present the first dispersive extraction of resonant poles from analytically continued neural networks. We use S-matrix informed neural networks (SINNs) trained to respect unitarity, analyticity, and crossing symmetry, without fixing a specific amplitude parametrization. The SINN framework controls representation dependence, enables constrained data selection, and enforces first principles. A large ensemble of networks trained on scattering data propagates correlated uncertainties to all derived observables. We obtain robust determinations of the , , and poles of scattering. Scattering lengths are determined alongside the amplitudes, while Adler zeroes emerge as predictions of the analytic structure. The results are stable against variations of the network architecture, and our approach can easily be adjusted for analysis of other reactions relevant to New Physics searches.

    Comments:
    9 pages, 4 figures
    Subjects:
    High Energy Physics — Phenomenology (hep-ph); Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
    arXiv:
    2608.23738 [pdf]
    0 citations
  4. 08

    [Submitted on 24 Aug 2026] (cross-list from hep-ph)

    S-matrix informed neural networks for amplitude analysis

    Wyatt A. Smith🇺🇸 · Arkaitz Rodas🇺🇸 · Marius D. Thomas🇺🇸 · César Fernández-Ramírez🇪🇸 · Giorgio Foti🇮🇹 · Lin Qiu🇺🇸 · Adam P. Szczepaniak🇺🇸 · Alessandro Pilloni🇮🇹

    Reconstructing scattering amplitudes from finite, noisy, and mutually inconsistent measurements is an ill-posed inverse problem common to many reactions relevant to particle physics. We introduce S-matrix informed neural networks (SINNs), and demonstrate their ability to learn scattering amplitudes directly from data while respecting first principles. We further develop a novel data selection procedure, which uses the response of constrained neural network ensembles to identify a set of experiments compatible with first principles, and with each other. We apply this framework to scattering, producing reusable amplitudes and correlated uncertainties without relying on a fixed functional form. We validate our results against residual model dependencies and training biases through closure tests and ablations. We find negligible impact of model architecture on our results. Our workflow unifies physics-constrained representation learning, data selection, and uncertainty quantification. Our strategy is transferable to other scattering processes, and other constrained physics problems limited by inconsistent data.

    Comments:
    29 pages, 23 figures
    Subjects:
    High Energy Physics — Phenomenology (hep-ph); Machine Learning (cs.LG); Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
    arXiv:
    2608.23750 [pdf]
    0 citations
  5. 09

    [Submitted on 22 Jul 2026] (cross-list from astro-ph.HE)

    Testing the QGP Star Hypothesis: The oMEGACat BH-2 System as a Candidate Color-Superconducting Quark-Gluon Plasma Star

    Herman J. Mosquera Cuesta🇪🇸

    The recent discovery of a long-period binary system in the globular cluster Centauri, oMEGACat BH-2 \citep{Whitaker2026}, provides an unprecedented opportunity to probe the true nature of compact dark objects. The system's massive, dark companion has been inferred to have a mass of , which places it in the ``mass gap'' between neutron stars and the canonical stellar-mass black holes. In this Letter, we explore the hypothesis that the oMEGACat BH-2 companion is not a classical black hole, but a stable, self-bound Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) star, as described by recent general relativistic models that incorporate Nonlinear Electrodynamics (NLED) and the asymptotic freedom of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) \citep{Mosquera2025}. We compare the inferred mass of the companion with the novel Mass-Radius (-) relation predicted by the QGP star model. We find that the inferred mass of the Centauri object lies squarely within the wide mass spectrum predicted for hypermassive QGP stars ( to ). Although this consistency is not enough for claiming evidence, it suggests that oMEGACat BH-2 may be the first observed candidate for a QGP star, representing a stable, non-singular end-state of stellar collapse. We argue that future astrometric monitoring with JWST and radio-telescopes like FAST and SKA can further constrain the oMEGACat BH-2 orbital parameters. Meanwhile, gravitational-wave follow-ups for the and modes by observatories like LIGO, VIRGO, KAGRA, LISA, ET and CE can be crucial for distinguishing a classical black hole from the ``gravitational eternally collapsing `kompact' object'' (\GECKO) state of our QGP star model.

    Comments:
    7 pages, 3 figures
    Subjects:
    High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE); General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc); High Energy Physics — Phenomenology (hep-ph); Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
    arXiv:
    2608.24505 [pdf]
    0 citations
  6. 10

    [Submitted on 25 Aug 2026] (cross-list from hep-ph)

    Resummed Power Corrections in Nuclear DVCS

    John Terry🇺🇸

    Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs) encode the three-dimensional structure of hadrons, yet their modification in nuclear matter remains largely unconstrained. We report the first derivation of resummed QCD power corrections to deeply virtual Compton scattering on nuclei. Extending techniques from inclusive deep inelastic scattering, we identify the nuclear-enhanced higher-twist contributions generated by coherent final-state scattering of the struck quark in the medium and resum them to all orders. The corrections are enhanced by an effective nuclear size and result in an exclusive analogue of dynamical nuclear shadowing. The shift is controlled by a parameter already fixed by inclusive nuclear data, so no new nonperturbative input enters. We present quantitative predictions for nuclear modifications of beam-spin observables at the Electron--Ion Collider.

    Comments:
    DIS POS
    Subjects:
    High Energy Physics — Phenomenology (hep-ph); Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex); Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
    arXiv:
    2608.24708 [pdf]
    0 citations
  7. 11

    [Submitted on 25 Aug 2026] (cross-list from nucl-ex)

    STAR Highlights II: Study of Small Systems and the Search for New, Exotic Physics

    Jiangyong Jia

    Twenty-five years of RHIC operation have produced a uniquely diverse dataset, which enables a broad physics program. This contribution highlights recent STAR results in four areas: exotic-state searches and ultra-peripheral collisions; the onset of quark--gluon plasma (QGP) signatures in small systems; radial flow and its fluctuations; and polarization and spin correlations.

    Comments:
    8 pages, 7 figures, this proceedings summarizes the results presented in the Strangeness in Quark Matter 2026 conference by the STAR collaboration
    Subjects:
    Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex); Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
    arXiv:
    2608.24828 [pdf]
    0 citations

Affiliations

first authorsco-authorsvia INSPIRE