Papers

We develop an operator-level framework for reconstructing the angular structure of small-$x$ diffractive amplitudes from energy-flow measurements. Focusing on coherent diffractive dijet production in the leading-eikonal approximation, we establish the relation between the angular multipoles of the dipole amplitude, the gluon Wigner distribution, and the diffractive scattering amplitude, while keeping their distinct radial transforms explicit. We show that, in the real common-phase sector and away from diffractive zeros, the normalized scattering amplitude can be reconstructed directly, up to a global sign convention, from the square root of the normalized energy-flow distribution. For generic complex amplitudes, the measured intensity instead determines autocorrelations of the amplitude spectrum and phase retrieval is not unique without additional information. We further discuss corrections arising from harmonic-dependent phases, practical conditions for an EIC extraction, and effects beyond the leading-eikonal approximation.

Statistical evidence for a continuous hadron-quark transition is found in this work. Confronting microscopic descriptions connecting the Parity Doublet Model and the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model with observationally constrained non-parametric equations of state, Bayesian model comparison decisively favors a boundary-free crossover over the conventional first-order Maxwell construction ($\Delta\ln\mathcal{Z} \sim +7.20$) and fixed-boundary crossover ($\Delta\ln\mathcal{Z} \sim +5.16 $). The preferred crossover decouples the intermediate stiffening from the intrinsic stiffness of each phase, allowing both sectors to exhibit physical self-consistency. The chiral-invariant nucleon mass is large, $M_0 = 834^{+28}_{-92}\text{ MeV}$, as expected for a substantial baryon mass surviving chiral restoration. While the quark sector accommodates a small pairing gap $\Delta_{\rm CFL} = 88^{+83}_{-59}\text{ MeV}$ consistent with perturbative QCD limits, avoiding the excessively large gaps $\Delta_{\rm CFL} \gtrsim 200\text{ MeV}$ required by the other constructions. These results demonstrate that a realistic unified description represents a continuous transition deviating substantially from isolated effective models of hadrons and quarks. Exploring genuine phase boundaries is therefore necessary through the emergence of spinodal instabilities within unified frameworks.

The nucleon axial form factor $F_A(Q^2)$ is a primary source of systematic uncertainty in charged-current quasielastic interactions, of critical importance for long-baseline neutrino-oscillation studies. Its low-$Q^2$ behavior is particularly problematic to pin down in neutrino measurements. To address this limitation, we investigate the weak process of polarized positron capture on the deuteron, $\vec{e}^{\,+} + {}^2\text{H} \rightarrow \bar{\nu}_e + p + p$. Employing a relativistic momentum-space formalism, we present predictions for the total cross section. Focusing on the kinematic regime free from pion-production backgrounds, we analyze various differential cross sections and their sensitivity to the $F_A(Q^2)$ variation. Our results demonstrate that thanks to the positron upgrade, Jefferson Lab will gain a unique position to make inroads into determining the low-$Q^2$ behavior of the axial form factor.

Coherent hard exclusive reactions on light nuclei offer access to their quark and gluon structure and provide a framework for three-dimensional nuclear tomography. We analyze deeply virtual Compton scattering on a helium-4 target, including leading-twist contributions as well as kinematical twist-3 and twist-4 effects. We present numerical estimates of cross sections and asymmetries for kinematic regimes relevant to JLab experiments. We emphasize the importance of next to leading order (NLO) and kinematical twist 3 and 4 contributions to interpret data in the JLab kinematics. We deduce a first tomographic image of quarks and gluons in the helium-4 nucleus.

We propose a new method to determine the 4th moment of the nuclear charge-density distribution of 208Pb, with high precision from low-momentum-transfer elastic electron scattering.

We present a formulation of general-relativistic (GR) 19-moment dissipative magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), capable of handling all first-order dissipative terms (viscosity, heat conductivity, resistivity and Hall terms), as well as all ideal electron degrees of freedom (number density, momentum and energy) in a GR astrophysical two-fluid plasma. We derive necessary and sufficient nonlinear causality conditions for the constrained first-order 19-moment system, as well as both necessary and sufficient conditions for strong hyperbolicity. To assess the formulation numerically, we develop a high-resolution shock-capturing scheme that solves these equations in a performance-portable fashion. The scheme expresses all evolution equations, including the dissipative and electron sectors, in flux-divergence form, allowing us to model systems with scales separated by orders of magnitude without resolving kinetic scales everywhere on the grid. In addition, we use implicit integration methods to systematically overstep kinetic scales in MHD regions, such as cyclotron and plasma frequencies. To make the scheme as robust as GRMHD codes, we construct necessary and sufficient conditions for a conserved state to be physically admissible, and based on these construct a new physicality-enforcement scheme. As an exact validation comparison, we formulate and derive a full solution to dissipative two-fluid Bondi accretion in general relativity. We then validate the equations against a series of results from kinetic particle-in-cell models of black hole accretion and magnetospheric dynamics, demonstrating that our formulation and scheme can correctly capture major features relevant for feedback on global scales of these solutions, including dimensionless reconnection rates of order $0.1$ and Braginskii-like anisotropic pressures and heat fluxes.

Heating matter can restore symmetries spontaneously broken at low temperature. The axial $U(1)$ symmetry of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is different: it is present in the classical theory with massless quarks but is broken upon quantization by the axial anomaly. The anomaly persists at every temperature, yet its observable effects can weaken. Can hot matter nevertheless behave as though this symmetry were restored at long distances? Whether such effective axial $U(1)$ restoration occurs depends on how microscopic quark and gluon dynamics governs the strength and spatial range of axial breaking. This review brings together theoretical developments and first-principles lattice QCD calculations. We examine how gluon-field topology shapes the low-lying Dirac modes and their correlations, how these modes contribute to axial breaking at different spatial scales, and what this implies for the order and critical behavior of the chiral phase transition as quark masses approach zero.

The presence of a dark energy (DE) core, made of a Chaplygin dark fluid, is capable of influencing the diverse observable properties of neutron stars (NSs). However, there is also the possibility that NSs could contain a mixture of ordinary nuclear matter and DE. In this perspective, we propose an equation of state (EoS) that includes both normal matter and DE, where a free parameter $f$ quantifies the ratio of DE density with respect to the total energy density. As expected, in the limit $f \rightarrow 0$ we recover the already known results corresponding to pure nuclear matter. Remarkably, increasing this fraction $f$ leads to a softer EoS and thus strongly favors the fulfillment of the causality condition. As a consequence of our mass–radius results, the central compact object in HESS J1731-347 can be satisfactorily described as a DE admixed NS. For sufficiently high stellar masses, our calculations further indicate that both the gravitational redshift and the fundamental nonradial oscillation frequency increase significantly with an increasing DE fraction, whereas the opposite trend is observed for the total gravitational mass and tidal deformability. As is typical for compact stars composed purely of ordinary matter, we find that in our DE admixed stellar models the central density corresponding to the maximum-mass configuration coincides with the point at which the squared radial vibration frequency vanishes. Moreover, higher DE concentrations lead to enhanced stability of these configurations.

We use bosonic tensor networks to connect the lattice sine-Gordon model in the Hamiltonian formulation quantitatively to its continuum theory. Matching the lattice vertex operator to its conformal normalization at the free-boson ultraviolet fixed point yields the exact relation between the bare lattice coupling and the renormalized continuum mass parameter. The soliton mass then approaches Zamolodchikov's exact continuum prediction throughout the studied parameter range, without adjustable parameters. Using uniform matrix product states and a quasiparticle ansatz, we also recover the relativistic soliton dispersion and the two lightest breather masses at the percent level. We simulate real-time collisions of Gaussian soliton-antisoliton wave packets near a reflectionless point and extract the Wigner spatial displacement. We compare this displacement with the exact continuum prediction obtained from the momentum derivative of the transmission phase, recovering its characteristic rapidity dependence. Our bosonic simulations provide a foundation for nonintegrable extensions, offer lessons for renormalization in other Hamiltonian lattice field theories, including gauge theories, and provide benchmarks for continuous-variable quantum simulations.

A hybrid framework combining the deformed Gamow-like model ($\mathrm{DGLM}$) with the Tabular Prior-data Fitted Network ($\mathrm{TabPFN}$) is developed to improve half-life predictions for two-proton emission, proton emission, $\alpha$ decay, and cluster radioactivity. A total of 583 radioactive nuclei are investigated, including 17 two-proton emitters, 42 proton emitters, 498 $\alpha$ emitters, and 26 cluster emitters. Among the four considered models, $\mathrm{DGLM}^{b}+\mathrm{TabPFN}$ achieves the best overall performance, with $\sigma_{\mathrm{RMS}}=0.423$, corresponding to an improvement of approximately $82.2\%$ over $\mathrm{DGLM}^{b}$. The model parameters are optimized for each decay mode using the least-squares method. After introducing $\mathrm{TabPFN}$, the prediction errors for proton emission and $\alpha$ decay are reduced by approximately $80.6\%$ and $87.6\%$, respectively. For $\alpha$ decay, the training, test, and overall RMSEs are 0.208, 0.305, and 0.240, indicating good generalization capability without evident overfitting. The model also reproduces the systematic evolution of $\alpha$-decay half-lives and the shell-closure effect around $N=126$. These results demonstrate that combining $\mathrm{DGLM}$ with $\mathrm{TabPFN}$ significantly improves the accuracy and robustness of radioactive-decay half-life predictions while retaining the physical interpretability of the original model.

The low-energy $M1$ orbital scissors mode (SM) was recently observed by Oslo group in deformed nucleus $^{254}$No. This is the heaviest nucleus where SM was ever experimentally found. We propose the analysis of SM, together with the spin-flip $M1$ resonance, within fully self-consistent Quasiparticle Random-Phase Approximation (QRPA) with Skyrme forces SG2, SLy4 and SLy5. The impact of "tensor" $J^2$-term, introduced by perturbative (on the base of SG2) and consistent (SLy5) ways, is analyzed and shown to be noticeable but not decisive. The deformation-induced coupling of $M1$ and $E2$ states is inspected. The calculations reasonably describe Oslo's experimental data. The best agreement is obtained for SLy5. A fine structure of SM in $^{254}$No is predicted. A significant constructive interference of the dominant orbital and minor spin-flip contributions to $M1$ strength at SM energy region is found. What is remarkable, our analysis of distributions of the convective nuclear currents challenges the scissors-like flow usually assumed for SM.

A new set of jet-medium transport coefficients stemming from jet-medium exchanges involving Glauber quarks encoded in $\hat{\mathcal{F}}_i$ [Phys. Rev. C 111, 054913 (2025), Phys. Rev. C 113, 055207] are obtained by computing the tree-level leading-order $2\to2$ scattering rates and their moments using the approach developed in Refs. [arxiv 2608.17160, arxiv 2608.17161]. Sizeable deviations away from the leading logarithmic dependence of jet-medium transport coefficients and scattering rate are observed here, as previously mentioned in Refs.[arxiv 2608.17160, arxiv 2608.17161]. A closed-form expression for $\hat{\mathcal{F}}_i$ accurate to $\lesssim 10$% or better is obtained, enabling our approach to be used within Monte Carlo simulations of jet-medium interactions. Monte Carlo simulations incorporating $\hat{\mathcal{F}}_i$ are sensitive to flavor hydrodynamization dynamics as the medium created in nucleus-nucleus collisions transitions from the early-time Glasma dynamics to the quark-gluon plasma fluid.

We study interacting relativistic charged bosons at finite temperature and isospin density in a thermodynamically consistent mean-field approach with repulsive phi-4 and phi-6 interactions. The thermodynamics is formulated in an Extended Canonical Ensemble, in which the conserved isospin density, not the chemical potential, is the independent variable. This is essential in the condensed phase, where mu_I is fixed by condensation. With one constant fitted to the lattice pressure at T=120 MeV, the model reproduces the lattice isospin density, energy density, and trace anomaly, phi-6 being more accurate.

The theoretical description of nuclear structure in rare earth nuclei represents a significant challenge for many shell models. This difficulty stems from the size of the configuration space involved. Methods based on symmetries provide significant advantages. Furthermore, the pseudo-SU(3) shell model has proven to be very useful in the description of these systems. In particular, we propose to study the energy spectra of the rotational bands with normal deformation at low and medium spin ($J\leq35/2$), the quadrupole moments, and the deformation parameter $\gamma$ associated with the states, as well as the B(E2) transition strengths in the $^{167,169,171}$Lu nuclei. The Hamiltonian includes $Q \cdot Q$, Nilsson, and pairing terms, parameterized in a systematic way, in addition to three rotor-like terms that enable fine tuning of the spectra. Our calculations predict collective rotational bands with prolate normal deformation in most cases. The exception is the $1/2^+$ band in $^{171}$Lu with a triaxial shape. The quadrupole moments vary along the bands, increasing in absolute value with spin. The $\gamma$ deformation parameter remains nearly constant along the bands, and the B(E2) values suggest bands with collective character and normal deformation. The agreement and limitations of the model are discussed.

We introduce a new approach, based on neural quantum states (NQSs), to rapidly compute nuclear observables when couplings in nuclear Hamiltonians are varied. A single interaction-dependent NQS, trained across a range of couplings in the Hamiltonian, provides high-fidelity wavefunctions for that continuous range of interaction parameters. With access to the wavefunction for each set of couplings, any static observables can be computed efficiently without retraining the NQS. We apply this framework to two-body nuclear scattering and the deuteron ground state with local interactions derived from chiral effective field theory up to third order.

The quantitative success of relativistic viscous hydrodynamics in describing the short-lived quark–gluon plasma raises a fundamental question: how does far-from-equilibrium QCD matter approach hydrodynamic behavior so rapidly? Microscopic kinetic-theory studies have related this onset to attractor dynamics, but typically assume transverse homogeneity. We relax this assumption by introducing gradient modes with finite transverse wave number $k$, extending the analysis of arXiv:2212.00820. These couple different spherical harmonics of the momentum distribution, and the resulting dynamics is controlled by the competition among the expansion rate $1/\tau$, the collision rate $1/\tau_R$, and the gradient scale $k$. At early times, longitudinal expansion suppresses this coupling, and different spherical harmonic sectors follow their homogeneous attractors. We find that, at later times and sufficiently small $k$, this gradient coupling drives the system toward a global attractor manifold spanned by hydrodynamic sound and shear modes, on a timescale $\tau_D$ that depends on both the azimuthal harmonic $m$ and $k\tau_R$. For sufficiently large $k\tau_R$, the spectral gap closes: perturbations retain finite damping rates and therefore equilibrate, but no longer follow an isolated hydrodynamic attractor or admit a reduced description involving only a few hydrodynamic modes.

We theoretically study the line shape of the experiment for $\Omega(2012)$ production in the $\Xi^- \pi^+ K^-$ and $\Xi^0 K^-$ decay modes, reflecting the $\Xi^* \bar K$ and $\Xi \bar K$ decay modes, from the perspective that the $\Omega(2012)$ is a molecular state dynamically generated from the interaction of the $\Xi^* \bar K $ and $\Omega \eta$, coupled channels with $\Xi \bar K$ as a decay channel. We show the consistency of the picture with the experimental mass distributions, giving support to the molecular picture for the $\Omega(2012)$ state. We also call the attention to the sensitivity of the results to the cut imposed on the $\pi \Xi$ invariant mass, and suggest a different method to obtain the ratio $R^{\Xi \pi \bar K}_{\Xi \bar K}$ of the three-body to two-body decay widths used so far as a test of the molecular picture. We stress that the direct comparison with the experimental mass distributions done here is a more stringent test of the molecular nature of the $\Omega(2012)$ state than the comparison of the ratio $R^{\Xi \pi \bar K}_{\Xi \bar K}$ which has been so far obtained using different criteria.

In lattice QCD computations of generalized parton distributions (GPDs), the large momentum expansion generally requires all hard scales, $2|x\pm\xi|P^z$ and $2|1\pm x|P^z$, to be much larger than $\Lambda_{\rm QCD}$. We show that this condition can be relaxed for $2|x\pm\xi|P^z$ at large $\xi$, making the important $x\sim\pm\xi$ regions accessible to lattice calculations and considerably expanding the region of computability. Revisiting previous lattice results with complete one-loop matching, we obtain the expected partonic threshold behavior—GPDs continuous at $x=\pm\xi$ but with discontinuous derivatives—which has not previously been observed on the lattice. We thus obtain, for the first time, important prediction for GPDs in the distribution-amplitude-like region, which smoothly connects the quark and antiquark PDF-like behaviors.

The present high precision determination of $|V_{ud}|$ from superallowed beta decays of $J^P=0^+$, $T=1$ nuclei is largely built on top of the “standard” calculation of the isospin breaking correction $\delta_C$ to the Fermi matrix element, which assumes the splitting $\delta_C=\delta_{C1}+\delta_{C2}$, where $\delta_{C1}$ and $\delta_{C2}$ represent the “isospin mixing” correction and the “radial mismatch” correction, respectively. In this paper I show that this formalism violates the rule of nucleon basis independence, similar to the gauge invariance requirement in quantum field theory, therefore its outcome is inevitably subject to uncontrolled systematic errors. I further argue that the perturbative formalism is the only approach that allows the computation of $\delta_C$ at the precision level required for the test of the Cabibbo unitarity. Advancing from existing literature, I develop the full “generating function approach” to compute $\delta_C$ perturbatively, with connections to nuclear mass splittings and the isospin breaking in nuclear charge radii as theory benchmarks.

Uncertainty-quantified global optical potential parameterizations are useful for making systematic studies across the nuclear chart and making predictions away from stability. While they generally provide a good description of the reactions on which they were calibrated, predictions can deviate strongly in specific cases and extrapolations incur large uncertainties. We propose a regional optical potential suited for a specific region of the nuclear landscape. We calibrate the potential along isotopic chains to enable both strong data coverage and improved extrapolative power. We modify the Chapel Hill optical potential and the statistical model used previously by Pruitt et al., to perform a Bayesian analysis of elastic scattering of neutrons and protons from zirconium isotopes with improved data coverage. The parameter distributions of our Chapel Hill Regional Potential (CHiRP) are propagated to compound nucleus reaction observables including (n, n'), (n, g) and (n, 2n), which have relevance to various nuclear technology applications. Results are compared to CHUQ, a global calibration of the Chapel Hill potential. The final parameterization of CHiRP differs from CHUQ particularly in the energy and radial dependence of its imaginary components. For elastic scattering, the uncertainties on the observables using CHiRP are smaller than those using CHUQ. CHiRP also provides an improvement over its global counterpart in the agreement with data around 10 MeV, while the regional and global approaches offer similar levels of agreement to elastic data at higher energies. The relative performance of CHiRP and CHUQ when propagating their uncertainty through compound nucleus reaction channels is also reported. The regional potential approach is a viable alternative to global optical model parameterizations for applications that require precise information within a sub-region of the nuclear landscape.

The halo nucleon-core system is, by definition, a shallow state nucleus. The nucleon, in most cases a neutron, is loosely bound to the other nucleons forming the core. Accordingly, the system is located inside the universal window; the halo nucleon most likely resides far from the rest of the nucleons, showing a remarkable insensitivity to details of the interaction with the core. The system can be described using a simple nucleon-core interaction, and this description can be extended to the nucleon-nucleon-core system. Specifically, treating the neutron-core and the neutron-neutron-core systems with a Gaussian interaction as a reference, we show trajectories inside the universal window governed by interaction parameters determined from low-energy observables, such as the neutron-core binding energy, scattering length, and effective range. In this way, we can relate properties of different halo nuclei that might seem uncorrelated. In particular, we determine the three-body parameter, the binding momentum at the unitary limit, and show that the two-neutron halo nuclei emerge from that limit following a linear trajectory depending on the neutron-core range.

Higher twists in deep-inelastic scattering (DIS) and related hard scattering processes provide a unique window on nonperturbative QCD dynamics, encoding quark-gluon correlations and multiparton interactions beyond the leading-twist parton model. We present an overview of the theoretical foundations of higher twists in QCD, based on the operator product expansion, and discuss their intimate connection with quark-hadron duality in the transition between the resonance and scaling regimes. We review the phenomenology of higher-twist effects in unpolarized and polarized DIS, emphasizing their extraction from precision data through modern global QCD analyses that simultaneously determine both leading-twist parton distribution functions and higher-twist contributions. Finally, we discuss recent developments in the study of higher twists in semi-inclusive and exclusive reactions, and conclude by highlighting future opportunities to study QCD dynamics beyond leading twist at Jefferson Lab and the Electron-Ion Collider that promise to deepen our understanding of hadron structure.

Various theoretical mass models have consistently achieved impressive accuracy in reproducing experimental masses. However, their predictions in unmeasured neutron-rich regions exhibit noticeable model dependence. In this study, we systematically investigate the differences in model predictions by comparing the liquid-drop mass terms of two representative models. Using two widely used models, Weizsacker-Skyrme-type (WS4) and Duflo-Zuker-type (DZ10), as representative examples, we find that the differences in an isotope chain gradually become more remarkable with increasing neutron number, not only for total binding energies but also for individual mass terms. The most noticeable difference appears in the volume-symmetry energy. By leveraging the term-by-term differences between the liquid-drop energy components of WS4 and DZ10, we introduce a machine learning gating network that adaptively combines the two models to improve predictive accuracy. This conditional hybrid model achieves a lower root-mean-square deviation (rmsd) than either model alone, reducing the overall rmsd from 0.284 MeV (WS4) and 0.560 MeV (DZ10) to 0.232 MeV. In the future, this term-by-term comparison strategy can be extended to models based on density-functional theories.

Over the past three decades, generalized parton distributions (GPDs) have emerged as one of the most active and important areas of research in nucleon structure and quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Since the last comprehensive review two decades ago, substantial progress has been made in experimental measurements of hard exclusive processes, such as deeply virtual Compton scattering and near-threshold $J/\psi$ production, as well as in increasingly sophisticated phenomenological analyses of GPDs that enable three-dimensional nucleon tomography. Theoretical advances in perturbative coefficient functions, scale evolutions, and kinematic and power corrections have considerably improved the precision of GPD phenomenology, while new hard exclusive processes for probing GPDs have been explored. More interestingly, lattice QCD can now directly access GPDs at fixed parton momentum fractions $x$ and skewness $\xi$ through large-momentum expansions, in addition to the traditional calculations of their moments, or generalized form factors. Significant progress has also been made in exploring the QCD energy-momentum tensor that encodes fundamental information on the nucleon's mass distribution, complete spin structure, and spatial distributions of momentum current and color-Lorentz forces acting on quarks and gluons.

We propose a novel class of anomalous nuclear matter: self-bound, neutron-rich droplets trapped in false vacuum associated with the nuclear liquid-gas phase transition in heavy-ion collisions. During the early stage of the fireball expansion, strongly correlated local clusters dynamically decouple from the bulk medium and are excited into the liquid phase. As the ambient fireball cools rapidly, these clusters are quenched into metastable anomalous droplets with isospin asymmetry from ambient neutron-enrichment. Mechanical equilibrium among nuclear pressure difference, Coulomb repulsion, and surface tension stabilizes droplets at radii of order $\mathcal{O}(10)$ fm. Isospin asymmetry induces high potential barrier that suppresses decay channels, yielding long lifetimes. These droplets are expected to exhibit characteristic charge-to-mass ratios distinct from conventional neutron-rich nuclei, providing clear experimental signatures for future heavy-ion collision searches.

Shape coexistence represents one of the most striking manifestations of competing collective and single-particle degrees of freedom in atomic nuclei. While the coexistence and mixing of two configurations can be described within the well-established Two-State Mixing framework, the observation of three or more competing structures requires a more general treatment. In this work, we introduce a Three-State Mixing (3SM) model in which three intrinsic configurations are related to the physical states through an $SO(3)$ rotation. The framework establishes a direct connection between experimental observables, configuration-mixing amplitudes, and intrinsic properties, while the experimentally known excitation energies allow the corresponding effective Hamiltonian and interaction strengths to be reconstructed. The model is applied to the low-lying structure of $^{116}$Sn using electromagnetic matrix elements recently determined through a comprehensive Coulomb-excitation measurement. The analysis identifies three intrinsic configurations characterized by spherical, weakly oblate, and strongly deformed triaxial shapes, together with substantial configuration mixing among the physical $0^+$ states. The present formulation provides a general phenomenological framework for investigating systems in which multiple configurations coexist and strongly interact.

Relativistic nuclear collisions have opened an experimental arena for studying many-body correlations in nuclear ground states. However, the connection between initial-state correlations and final-state multi-particle observables measured at colliders is not yet formulated as a systematically improvable matching problem. We show that detector correlators built from asymptotic energy flows provide a natural framework for realizing such a construction. In particular, we express the asymptotic energy flow as a functional of the early-time stress tensor, and expand it in suitable modes to recover the familiar linear hydrodynamic relations at leading order. Then, motivated by small-$x$ QCD, we map angular projections of detector correlators to multipole-operator correlators computed in the colliding nuclei. We thus establish a systematic formalism for matching long-wavelength correlations between incoming and outgoing QCD states in high-energy hadronic collisions.

The sensitivity of the $^{229m}$Th isomer transition frequency to the possible temporal variation of the fine-structure constant $\alpha$ is investigated theoretically. We evaluate both the Coulomb as well as the isomer energies in a selfconsistent Hartree-Fock plus Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) approach with Skyrme energy density functional, taking a detailed account of the nuclear shape deformation and pairing correlations. Our results show that by a fine tuning of the pairing strengths and considering axial octupole deformation, the model can predict a very low isomer energy below the keV limit, which is not accessible in the presence of imposed reflection symmetry. Furthermore, in the model solution with octupole deformation, the difference between the Coulomb energy in the isomeric and ground states is one order of magnitude larger than for the case with imposed reflection symmetry. These results allow for a fully theoretical prediction of the sensitivity of the isomer transition frequency to $\alpha$ in the framework of a microscopic nuclear model, yielding values of $K\sim 10^3-10^4$, and for a deeper understanding of its underlying physical conditions.

The Higgs vacuum expectation value (VEV) alters both the electroweak and strong interaction rates. We study both effects on Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) and seek concordance between observed primordial abundances of light elements and cosmological constraints from cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations and anisotropies. We find a strong negative correlation between primordial 4He abundance and the Higgs VEV. Consequently, using a 1.58% uplift of the Higgs VEV during BBN from the current value, an agreement can be achieved among the new primordial 4He abundance, observed by the EMPRESS group, Deuterium abundance determined from absorption lines in the Lyman-alpha forest along the line-of-sight of high-redshift quasars, and the lithium abundance on the Spite plateau. This agreement requires a baryon-to-photon ratio different from the CMB determination, indicating the need for non-standard cosmological evolution between BBN and recombination epochs.We also demonstrate that a 0.2% uplift in the Higgs VEV can partially alleviate the "cosmic Li problem", keeping consistency with the CMB with remaining discrepancy potentially accounted for by stellar depletion mechanisms.

High-energy hadron reactions could be appropriate to find exotic evidences in exotic hadron candidates instead of global observables such as masses, spins, parities, and decay widths, because quarks and gluons are explicit degrees of freedom. One of possible methods is to use fragmentation functions (FFs) by taking advantage of properties on favored and disfavored functions, which corresponds to valence-quark and sea-quark distributions in parton distribution functions. Looking at these FFs, we should be able to find the exotic nature as the valence-quark distributions reflect the nature of valence constituents as shown in the pion and the proton. Recent accurate measurements of the $f_0$(980) FFs by the Belle collaboration made it possible to find its internal configuration by looking at their second moments and functional forms. Global analysis results of the $f_0$(980) FFs indicate that its internal configuration looks like $s\bar s$, which is different from a tetraquark or $K\bar K$-molecule like configuration suggested from low-energy studies. This fact indicates that the internal configuration looks different depending on the energy. At low energies, it looks like a tetraquark ($K\bar K$ molecule) hadron, but it looks like a $q\bar q$ hadron at high energies. In the similar way, some exotic hadron candidates could become ordinary $q\bar q$ or $qqq$ hadrons at high energies, although they are interpreted as exotic at low energies. This kind of new idea should be tested by future experiments especially by looking at energy or momentum dependencies in high energy hadron reactions.