We assess the impact of measuring deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) off protons using the planned detector at the Electron-Ion Collider in China (EicC), which is proposed as an upgrade to the High Intensity Heavy-Ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF). We develop a neural-network architecture to flexibly parameterize Compton form factors (CFFs), reliably extrapolate into unmeasured kinematic regions, and provide robust uncertainty estimates using the replica method. The framework is fitted to available worldwide DVCS data using the $ {\mathrm{Gepard}}$ software. We find a significant reduction in the uncertainties of all CFFs after incorporating pseudo-data from single and double polarization asymmetries at the EicC, with particularly strong improvements in the sea-quark region.

China

Yuan-Yuan Huang

Xu Cao

Taifu Feng

Croatia

Krešimir Kumerički

Yu Lu

Assessing the impact of the Electron-Ion Collider in China on deeply virtual Compton scattering * Supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2023YFA1606703), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12547111, 12235008, 12405105) and (PK.1.1.10.0004) co-financed by the European Union and through the European Regional Development Fund - Competitiveness and Cohesion Programme 2021-2027. TF also thanks the Hebei Natural Science Foundation (A2022201017, A2023201041) and Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Autonomous Region (2022GXNSFDA035068)

We present a comprehensive bottom-up analysis of lepton mass and mixing based on the non-holomorphic $A_{4}$ modular symmetry. Neutrinos are assumed to be Majorana particles, and the light neutrino masses are generated through the Weinberg operator. In this framework, we construct all phenomenologically viable models with minimal number of free parameters, with the Yukawa couplings expressed in terms of polyharmonic Maaß forms of weights $\pm4$ , $\pm2$ , and 0 at level $N=3$ . Without imposing generalized CP (gCP) symmetry, we identify 147 (six) viable models with eight real free parameters that successfully reproduce the current experimental data of the lepton sector for the normal (inverted) mass ordering. When gCP symmetry consistent with $A_{4}$ modular symmetry is included, the number of free parameters is reduced by one, yielding 47 (five) phenomenologically viable models in the normal (inverted) mass ordering. Finally, we present detailed numerical analyses of a representative model for both mass orderings to illustrate these results.

Xiang-Yan Gao

Cai-Chang Li

Minimal lepton models with non-holomorphic modular $\textit{A}$ $_{4}$ symmetry * Supported by Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi (2024JC-YBQN-0004) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12547106, 12247103)

The quark-mass dependence of the $ N^*(920) $ pole is analyzed using the $\textit{K}$-matrix method, with the $ \pi N $ scattering amplitude calculated up to the $ O(p^3) $ order in the chiral perturbation theory. As the quark mass increases, the $ N^*(920) $ pole gradually approaches the real axis in the complex $\textit{w}$-plane (where $ w=\sqrt{s} $ ). Eventually, in the $ O(p^2) $ case, it crosses the $\textit{u}$-cut on the real axis and enters the adjacent Riemann sheet when the pion mass reaches $ 526\; {\rm{MeV}} $ . At order $ O(p^3) $ , the rate at which it approaches the real axis decreases; however, it remains uncertain whether it will ultimately cross the $\textit{u}$-cut and enter the adjacent Riemann sheet. In addition, the trajectory of the $N^*(920)$ pole is in qualitative agreement with the results from the linear $\textit{σ}$ model calculation.

Xu Wang

Kai-Ge Kang

Qu-Zhi Li

Zhiguang Xiao

Han-Qing Zheng

Studies on quark-mass dependence of the $\textit{N}$ $^{*}$(920) pole from unitarized $\textit{πN}$ $\textit{χ}$PT amplitudes * Supported by China National Natural Science Foundation (12335002, 12375078) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities

Within the framework of Dyson-Schwinger equations (DSEs) and by means of the Multiple Reflection Expansion approximation, we study the finite volume effects on the constituent quark mass in a strong external magnetic field. Since the magnetic field influences the coupling constant, which controls the strength of strong interactions in QCD, we adopt the magnetic-field-dependent running coupling constant in our simulations. The results show that, in addition to the magnetic field, the masses of constituent quarks also have a significant dependence on the volume and the running coupling constant. The model behaves closely to the infinite volume limit for large sizes, but the effect of the finite volume is significant when the system size $\textit{R}$ is about $ 2-6 $ fm. The finite volume effects and the magnetic-field-dependent running coupling constant have considerable influence on the phase transition.

Li-Juan Zhou

De-Xian Wei

Zhong-Yi Liu

Hong-Wei Zhong

Dynamical quark mass and finite volume effects in the Dyson-Schwinger equations * Li-Juan Zhou has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11865005), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi (China) (2025GXNSFAA069552). De-Xian Wei has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12105057), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi (China) (2023GXNSFAA026020)

Investigating the electromagnetic characteristics of unconventional states may offer new insights into their internal structures. In particular, the magnetic moment attributes may serve as a crucial physical observable for differentiating exotic states with disparate configurations or spin-parity quantum numbers. As a promising avenue for research, encompassing both opportunities and challenges, an in-depth examination of the electromagnetic properties of exotic states is crucial for advancing our understanding of unconventional states. Motivated by this, in this study, the magnetic moments of ${I(J^{P})} = 1(1^{+})$ $ Z_{\bar{b} c} $ tetraquark states are analyzed in the framework of QCD light-cone sum rules by considering the diquark-antidiquark approximation, designated as type $ 3_c \otimes \bar{3}_c $ . Although the tetraquark states examined in this study have nearly identical masses, their magnetic moment results exhibit noticeable discrepancies. This may facilitate the differentiation between quantum numbers associated with states with identical quark content. The results show that heavy quarks overcoming light quarks can determine both the sign and magnitude of the magnetic moments of these tetraquark states. The numerical results obtained in this study suggest that the magnetic moments of $ Z_{\bar{b} c} $ tetraquark states may reveal aspects of their underlying structure, which could distinguish between their spin-parity quantum numbers and internal structure. The results obtained regarding the magnetic moments of the $ Z_{\bar{b} c} $ tetraquark states may be checked within the context of different phenomenological approaches.

Ulaş Özdem

Elucidating the nature of axial-vector charm-antibottom tetraquark states

The interference between amplitudes corresponding to different intermediate resonances plays an important role in generating large CP asymmetries in the phase space in multi-body decays of bottom and charmed mesons. In this study, we examine the CP violation in the decay channel $ {\overline{B}}^{0}\rightarrow K^{-}\pi^{+}\pi^{0} $ in the phase-space region where the intermediate resonances $ \overline{K}^{*}(892)^{0} $ and $ {\overline{K}^{*}_{0}(700)} $ dominate. In particular, the forward-backward asymmetry (FBA) and the CP asymmetry induced by FBA (FB-CPA), which are closely related to the interference effects between the two aforementioned resonances, are investigated. The nontrivial correlation between FBA and FB-CPA is analyzed. The analysis indicates that FB-CPAs around the resonance $ \overline{K}^{*}(892)^{0} $ can be as large as approximately 35%, which can be potentially accessible by Belle and Belle-II collaborations in the near future.

Jian-Yu Yang

Yu-Jie Zhao

Jing-Juan Qi

Zhen-Hua Zhang

The forward-backward asymmetry induced CP asymmetry in ${{\overline{B}}^{0}\rightarrow K^{-}\pi^{+}\pi^{0}}$ in phase space around the resonances ${{\overline{K}}^{*}(892)^{0}}$ and ${{\overline{K}}^{*}_{0}(700)}$ * Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (12475096, 12405115, 12192261) and Scientific Research Fund of Hunan Provincial Education Department (22A0319)

Motivated by the observation of the doubly charmed tetraquark $ T_{cc}(3875)^+ $ , we present a systematic study of doubly heavy tetraquarks ( $ T_{QQ'\bar{q}\bar{q}'} $ ) using heavy antiquark-diquark symmetry (HADS) within a constituent quark model. By calibrating model parameters to known hadron spectra and incorporating the effective mass formula, we predict the masses for 38 ground-state tetraquarks with $ cc $ , $ bb $ , and $ bc $ heavy quark pairs, including the non-strange, single-strange, and double-strange configurations with quantum numbers $ J^P = 0^+, 1^+ $ and $ 2^+ $ . Notably, we identify several stable states below the relevant meson-meson thresholds, particularly in the $ bb\bar{q}\bar{q}' $ sector. The explicit connection between the doubly heavy tetraquark and the heavy baryon spectra through HADS reduces model dependence and reveals the fundamental systematics in the heavy-quark hadron landscape.

Liu-Yu Zhang

Tian-Wei Wu

Yong-Liang Ma

Bridging doubly heavy tetraquark mass spectrum with heavy baryons utilizing heavy antiquark-diquark symmetry * The work of Tian-Wei Wu is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12405108). Yong-Liang Ma is supported in part by the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (12347103) and Gusu Talent Innovation Program (ZXL2024363)

The Schwinger effect, a non-perturbative mechanism for particle production in strong fields, plays a crucial role in understanding quantum vacuum decay and high-energy phenomena, including heavy-ion collisions (HIC). Although holographic quantum chromodynamics (QCD) models have been widely used to study this effect, most treatments assume isotropy or consider only a single type of anisotropy, neglecting the interplay between spatial and magnetic anisotropies that arise in realistic HIC scenarios. A unified framework accounting for both anisotropies is needed to accurately model particle production. We investigate the Schwinger effect in a twice anisotropic holographic QCD model incorporating both spatial and magnetic anisotropies. Using the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory correspondence, we compute the total potential of a particle-antiparticle pair to quantify how these anisotropies influence pair production. Our results show that the magnetic field (parameterized by $c_B$ and $q_3$ ) enhances the Schwinger effect by lowering and narrowing the potential barrier, while increasing spatial anisotropy (controlled by $\nu$ ) suppresses the process by raising and widening the barrier. These findings demonstrate that magnetic and spatial anisotropies exert competing effects on particle production, emphasizing the necessity of treating both concurrently in holographic models. This work advances the theoretical description of the Schwinger effect in anisotropic environments, with implications for understanding non-equilibrium dynamics in HIC and other strongly coupled systems.

Wen-Bin Chang

Defu Hou

Schwinger effect in a twice anisotropic holographic model * Defu Hou's research is supported in part by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFA1604900). Additionally, Defu Hou receives partial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (12435009, 12275104). Wen-Bin Chang is supported by the Ph.D. Research Startup Project at Hubei Minzu University (RZ2500000857)

Spin dependent phenomena in inclusive hadron production have been extensively investigated, yet their microscopic origin and universality across different hadrons are still not fully understood. In particular, it is presently unknown whether antiprotons produced in unpolarized hadronic collisions can acquire a transverse polarization as a result of spin dependent $$\bar{p}N$$ interactions and nonperturbative hadronization mechanisms. Establishing the presence or absence of such an effect would provide new empirical constraints on the spin structure of the antinucleon–nucleon interaction, which is only weakly constrained by existing data. In this work, we investigate the experimental feasibility of a first dedicated measurement of the transverse polarization of antiprotons produced in proton-nucleus collisions. The polarization is accessed through the left–right asymmetry in elastic $$\bar{p}p$$ scattering in the Coulomb Nuclear Interference region. Based on detailed Monte Carlo simulations of the proposed experimental setup at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), we estimate the statistical sensitivity required to detect a certain degree of polarization.

Germany

D. Alfs

D. Grzonka

Switzerland

G. Khatri

Poland

P. Kulessa

J. Ritman

T. Sefzick

J. Smyrski

V. Verhoeven

H. Xu

M. Zieliński

Proposal for the first measurement of antiproton polarization in proton-nucleus interactions

We explore the maximum mass limit of strange stars in quadratic curvature gravity with the non-minimal matter coupling. The characteristic parameters of the quadratic curvature coupling and the non-minimal matter coupling imply the contributions from higher-order curvature terms and the coupling between matter and geometry, respectively. We demonstrate, explicitly, that the conservation of energy–momentum tensor can be modified and in the case of negligible non-minimal matter coupling, the formalism of general relativity is recovered. By deriving the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff equations from the gravitational field equations and applying the MIT bag model equation of state, we obtain the corresponding mass-radius relationships for strange stars. Although the MIT bag model represents a simplified phenomenological equation of state, it remains an effective description of strange quark matter under the extreme conditions prevailing in neutron star/strange star interiors. Within the present framework, the adoption of this equation of state yields stellar radii that are in close agreement with those inferred from recent observations of compact stars as well as GW events. This consistency between theoretical predictions and observational results indicates that, despite its simplicity, the model captures essential features of dense matter and supports the reliability of the results reported in this work. Furthermore, we show that the maximum mass limit of strange stars can exceed the general relativistic counterpart. Specifically, we find that a maximum mass up to 3.11 solar mass is achievable which suggests that the lighter companion of GW190814 could plausibly be a strange star.

India

Debadri Bhattacharjee

Pradip Chattopadhyay

Japan

Kazuharu Bamba

Maximum mass limit of strange stars in quadratic curvature-matter coupled gravity