arXiv subjects

Xiaohui Liu

Publications and source records attributed to Xiaohui Liu.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

A universal probe of QCD spin physics from fragmentation energy correlator

We study the fragmentation energy correlator (FEC), which combines the nonperturbative fragmentation function with the infrared-safe energy correlator, as a new probe of the three-dimensional dynamics of QCD hadronization. We demonstrate, both theoretically and numerically, that FEC applies universally to inclusive hadron production in lepton-lepton, lepton-hadron, and hadron-hadron collisions, without requiring jet algorithms or simultaneous measurements of other heavy objects. Through the nontrivial transverse-spin dependence, FEC provides a sensitive probe of the chiral-symmetry-breaking scale in QCD via its variation with the energy-correlator scale.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

No Strong Evidence for Plasma Lensing in FRB 20240114A

FRB 20240114A is an extremely active repeating fast radio burst for which plasma lensing has been proposed to explain its burst-rate variations, spectral evolution, and apparently ``carbon-copy'' burst pairs. Using FAST data and publicly available Parkes observations, we test this interpretation with the predictions of a one-dimensional Gaussian plasma-lens model. Although the burst-rate enhancements may be fitted separately for Parkes and FAST, the corresponding magnification peaks and demagnification troughs between the two datasets are offset from each other, inconsistent with plasma lensing predictions. The enhancement peaks also do not show consistent periodicity, disfavoring a binary plasma lensing origin. The burst bandwidths are not systematically narrower during the proposed lensing interval than in other episodes. Most importantly, the burst energy distribution, which shows an intrinsic turnover peak at low energies, shows no significant shift of the turnover during the magnification interval, providing a model-independent test to the plasma-lensing interpretation. All these suggest that there is no strong evidence in favor of a plasma lensing interpretation to the source. Rather, all the burst property variations are consistent with being caused by the intrinsic variations of the FRB central engine.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

ARBOR: Locating Reasoning Failures in Long Chains of Thought through Reasoning State Tracking

Large reasoning models solve complex problems through long chains of thought, in which prior work has documented failure modes such as overthinking, underthinking, and unsupported deductions. Existing methods detect these failures from local signals: textual similarity to nearby steps, switch tokens, or an LLM's judgment of a step's correctness. However, what a step contributes to the solution depends on the state that earlier steps have established, so identifying failures requires a global view that tracks that state across the trajectory. Therefore, we propose ARBOR, a reasoning-failure attribution framework that represents each trajectory as a tree of reasoning states, built as each step creates, verifies, prunes, or revisits a state, and attributes each failure to a relation between a step and the state preceding it. Using ARBOR, we refine the three failure modes into distinct subtypes that harm reasoning through different mechanisms and at different costs. We find that the tree state ARBOR maintains before a step separates failure steps from the at-risk steps at which the failure did not occur. We discuss how ARBOR integrates with existing mitigations at inference time and in training data. Code, data and interactive examples are available at https://inklab.usc.edu/ARBOR.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2026

Hierarchical Relaxation in Large-twist-angle Moire Drives Supermoire Formation

Supermoire lattices in large-angle twisted bilayers have recently been shown to emerge from periodic arrangements of commensurate stacking motifs, yet the microscopic structural mechanism governing their formation has remained unresolved. Here, we uncover the microscopic origin of supermoire order as a hierarchical lattice relaxation process. Combining force-field simulations with experimental validation via super-resolution, layer-resolved multislice electron ptychography, our results identify interlayer Se-Se repulsion at the picometer scale as the driving force, giving rise to coupled short-range (about 1 nm) moire relaxation and coexisting long-range (about 10 nm) supermoire modulation. These findings demonstrate that even picometer-scale lattice relaxation remains critical in large-angle moire systems and must be explicitly considered in understanding their emergent electronic and quantum phenomena.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2026

Infrared Subtraction with Artificial Intelligence

We present AI-developed local infrared subtraction, building on projection to Born and EFT matching. The framework separates an integrable radiation term from a finite contribution at Born kinematics, referred to as the Born contact. The contact is determined using the EFT singular distribution in a resolution observable such as N-jettiness $τ_N$. Under human physics guidance, an LLM develops two implementations. One uses a neural network for phase space projection and fits the contact by matching to EFT cumulants. The other uses an analytic construction that keeps the Born momenta fixed while integrating over radiation. It combines the EFT $δ(τ_N)$ coefficient with finite 4-dimensional radiation integrals to calculate the contact term directly. This gives a local subtraction formula without a slicing parameter, while reusing existing lower-order radiation calculations and EFT singular predictions. As a demonstration, we reconstruct the full NLO correction for massless 3- and 4-jet production in electron-positron annihilation. The attempt to the NNLO dijet production is also made by recursively using the NLO P2B construction with the LLM designing machine-learning controls to reduce the variance of the contact integral. The tested predictions are in good agreement with EERAD3. The numerical calculation and projection-network training use a 2020 Apple M1 MacBook, without GPU acceleration, illustrating the feasibility of the construction with modest computing resources. The appendices develop an extension of the local subtraction to 3-jet NNLO, giving explicit radiation maps and a proposed contact formula. We also show how to integrate over NNLO radiation while keeping the Born momenta fixed, for any number of massless final-state jets. Our results demonstrate how AI can help higher-order calculations by constructing infrared subtraction and improving its numerical integration.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

Constraints on Axion-like Dark Matter from Cosmic Birefringence with a Polarization Array of Repeating Fast Radio Bursts

Axion-like dark matter (ALDM) is a well-motivated dark matter candidate whose Chern-Simons coupling to photons can induce cosmic birefringence, producing temporal oscillations and spatial correlation in polarization angle (PA) signals from different sources. Hyperactive repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs) with high linear polarization are a particularly promising probe of such signatures. We develop a Bayesian framework to search for PA oscillations caused by ALDM in individual repeating FRBs, and combine multiple sources in an FRB polarization array (FRBPA) by exploiting correlations arising from the common Earth term. We apply this framework to PA datasets from three well-studied hyperactive repeating FRBs, and constrain the Chern-Simons coupling over a broad range of ALDM masses. For each FRB, we estimate the dark matter density at its host location using a simulation-calibrated halo profile. The inferred dark matter densities are comparable to the fiducial local density $ρ_0 = 0.4~\mathrm{GeV/cm^3}$. The comparable source and Earth dark matter densities, together with the redshift-induced difference between the frequencies of the source and Earth terms, motivate our adoption of the full two-component birefringence model. We find no compelling evidence for ALDM-induced PA oscillations in either the individual source analyses or the joint FRBPA analysis. We place 95\% credible upper limits on the Chern-Simons coupling strength as a function of ALDM mass. Across the axion mass from $10^{-23}$ to $10^{-18}~\mathrm{eV}$, the resulting upper limits of the coupling strength of FRBPA lie between $10^{-12.6}$ and $10^{-7.9}~\mathrm{GeV}^{-1}$. Our results establish long-term polarimetric monitoring of hyperactive repeating FRBs as a promising and independent probe of ALDM, with sensitivity expected to improve with longer observational baselines and larger source samples.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

Hadronization effects and electroweak contributions in DIS one-jettiness

We study the structure of leading hadronization effects and the contributions of massive electroweak gauge boson exchange in the $τ_1$ and $τ_{1a}$ 1-Jettiness global event shapes for deep inelastic scattering (DIS). The leading hadronization effects in $τ_1$ acquire a non-trivial dependence on the hard scattering kinematics. This kinematic dependence is explicitly calculable, so that the leading hadronization effects in $τ_1$, $τ_{1a}$, and DIS thrust are universal and described by the same underlying shape function. The additional calculable kinematic dependence in $τ_1$ provides an independent lever arm for simultaneously constraining hadronization effects in these observables. We present corresponding results at the N$^3$LL+${\cal O}(α_s^2)$ level of accuracy. We extend previous results by including the contributions mediated by the exchange of the massive $Z$ and $W$ electroweak gauge bosons for neutral current (NC) and charged current (CC) DIS, respectively, including ${\cal O}(α_s)$ QCD corrections to obtain N$^2$LL+${\cal O}(α_s)$ results. We compare theoretical predictions to Pythia simulation and demonstrate the universality of leading hadronization effects across NC and CC DIS processes and a wide range of kinematics relevant to HERA and the EIC.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

China's Shrinking Home Bias and Rising Disruptive Impact: Evidence from a Global Citation Network Analysis

China has become the world's largest producer of scientific publications, yet concerns persist that this growth is inflated by excessive domestic citation practices. In this study, we analyze a citation network of over 45 million publications from Web of Science (1980-2025) to investigate China's home citation bias and research impact. Using a network reshuffling null model to control for the structural effect of publication volume, we find that China's home citation bias is less pronounced than commonly assumed and has been steadily declining over the past two decades. Chinese researchers do not exhibit a significantly stronger home citation preference than other major countries, indicating increasing internationalization rather than insularity. Furthermore, using the persistent disruption framework, we show that Chinese papers are converging toward American papers in their capacity to produce paradigm-shifting work. These findings challenge prevailing narratives about Chinese scientific home bias and suggest that China's advances in research impact.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2026

Unveiling the spectral morphological division of fast radio bursts with CHIME/FRB Catalog 2

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are commonly classified into repeating and apparently nonrepeating sources, yet whether this distinction reflects intrinsically different physical populations remains uncertain. Using the Second CHIME/FRB Catalog, we apply an unsupervised machine learning framework combining Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) with density-based clustering to investigate the intrinsic structure of the FRB population in a multi-dimensional parameter space. We find that FRBs are primarily separated into two robust clusters dominated by spectral morphology. One cluster is characterized by narrowband emission and longer durations, while the other exhibits relatively broadband spectra and shorter burst timescales. This classification scheme achieves a recall of 0.94 for known repeaters. Within the repeating population, we further identify a stable subclass of atypical repeaters that are broadband, shorter in duration, and more luminous, resembling nonrepeating bursts. Furthermore, broadband nonrepeaters exhibit systematically higher dispersion measures (by approximately 200 $\text{pc cm}^{-3}$) and isotropic luminosities approximately an order of magnitude larger than those of repeating FRBs. Without invoking catastrophic progenitor scenarios, these differences are naturally explained by instrumental sensitivity limits and distance-dependent selection effects. Our results provide new statistical evidence for a physical connection between repeating and nonrepeating FRBs.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

Tracing Vacuum Hadronization with Conserved Currents

We show that color triality constrains the nonperturbative states that screen a Wilson-line endpoint, allowing the joint flows of net electric charge, baryon number, and strangeness to probe QCD vacuum hadronization. Whether evaluated from resolved hadrons in a jet initiated by a quark of flavor $f$ or from the corresponding charge correlators, these flows satisfy the Gell-Mann--Nishijima relation $\langle Q_{\rm flow}\rangle_f \simeq I_{3,f} +\frac{1}{2}\left( \langle S_{\rm flow}\rangle_f +\langle B_{\rm flow}\rangle_f \right)$, where $I_{3,f}$ is the third component of the initiating-quark isospin. The net jet baryon number, $\langle B_{\rm flow}\rangle_f\simeq \frac{r_{qq}}{1+r_{qq}}$, directly probes the relative probability of a diquark--antidiquark vacuum excitation, with $r_{qq}$ the diquark-to-quark production ratio. Thus, for $r_{qq}\ll1$, the baryon number carried by the jet is substantially suppressed relative to the initiating-quark value $B_f=1/3$. Likewise, the strange-to-light pair-production ratio, defined by $u\bar u:d\bar d:s\bar s=1:1:r_s$, is encoded in the measured jet strangeness $\langle S_{\rm flow}\rangle_f \simeq S_f+\frac{3r_s}{2+r_s} \left(\frac{1}{3}- \langle B_{\rm flow}\rangle_f\right)$, predicting a nonzero mean net strangeness even in $u$- and $d$-initiated jets. The conserved-current moments appearing in these relations are independent of the renormalization scale. Their simultaneous measurement therefore provides a direct, flavor-resolved probe of vacuum pair production and quantum-number transport during hadronization.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

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

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.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

Probing Baryonic Feedback Effect with CSST Weak Lensing and Future FRB Measurements

We explore the joint probe on the baryonic feedback effect using the weak lensing measurement from the upcoming Chinese Space-station Survey Telescope (CSST) photometric survey and the dispersion measure (DM) statistics of the fast radio bursts (FRBs) from next-generation radio telescopes, i.e., the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and the Deep Synoptic Array (DSA-2000). By employing the baryonic halo model, we compute the matter, electron, and matter--electron power spectra, and generate mock data considering realistic noise and systematic effects based on the designs of the telescopes. These mock data are then analyzed using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method to investigate the parameter constraints. We find that CSST weak lensing alone can constrain the baryonic feedback parameter $\log_{10} T_{\text{AGN}}$ to an accuracy of $3.1\%$, with the sum of neutrino mass bound $\sum m_ν < 0.53\,\mathrm{eV}$. When performing the $3\times2 \,\mathrm{pt}(e,\mathrm{m})$ analysis, the inclusion of FRB DM measurements can significantly improve the precision of $\log_{10} T_{\text{AGN}}$ to $0.4\%$, and will lead to a better constraint on $\sum m_ν$ with an upper limit $< 0.47\,\mathrm{eV}$ by effectively breaking the degeneracy. Our results demonstrate that the joint observation of future FRB DM and weak lensing surveys is a powerful tool for probing the baryonic feedback effect, which is helpful in obtaining robust constraints on the neutrino mass and other important cosmological parameters.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

Why has PET glycolysis remained difficult to industrialize despite decades of optimization?

Classical PET glycolysis struggles with industrial scale-up due to a research paradigm defect: uncoupled reaction optimization that ignores system-level engineering entropy. By establishing a governing reference frame, Scientific Reasoning Units (SRUs) and human-AI collaborative discovery in this article, we present a Three-Step Synergistic Reinforcement Paradigm addressing the triple failure modes of traditional systems-mass-transfer collapse, viscosity deadlock, and side-reaction accumulation. By integrating twin-screw controlled shearing, solid-state micro-homogenization, and deep depolymerization (2:1 EG/Oligomer ratio), we achieve an ultrafast kinetic regime. BHET yields surge to 80% to 95% within 10 minutes, eliminating multi-hour thermal bottlenecks and delivering an economically viable framework for closed-loop polyester recycling.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2026

Transverse Charge Distribution as a Probe of Nucleon Transversity

We introduce the transverse charge distribution as a spin-sensitive charge-flow probe for fragmentation and nucleon tomography. By measuring the angular distribution of net electric charge around a fragmenting quark, this observable relies entirely on the tracking of charged-particle directions and charge signs, strictly bypassing the need for calorimetric energy measurements. At leading twist, the distribution decomposes into an unpolarized charge monopole and a chiral-odd transverse charge dipole. We derive the operator product expansion of these distributions onto charge-weighted collinear moments: a charge monopole and a charge dipole governed by the Collins effect and couples directly to transversity. Applying this formalism to transversely polarized $p^\uparrow p$ collisions at RHIC, we show that charge weighting suppresses the unpolarized monopole background and causes the spin-dependent dipoles from oppositely charged hadrons to add coherently. This coherence strongly enhances the resulting azimuthal asymmetries, establishing a theoretically clean and experimentally precise track-only avenue for extracting transversity.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

Emergent Trion Resonance Driven by Lattice Reconstruction in a Moiré Superlattice

We investigate how many-electron excited states emerge in twisted MoSe2 homobilayers when the lattice reconstructions evolve. Notably, we identify a new trion resonance that arises in the transition regime of lattice reconstruction, where gradual changes in atomic alignment between the layers occur. Magnetic field-dependent measurements, supported by first-principles calculations, indicate that the exciton forms at the K valley while the doped hole resides in the Gamma valley. First-principles calculations further indicate that two nearly degenerate exciton resonances can arise, localized at different sites within the moiré supercell. We propose that the new trion resonance is a "charge-transfer" trion, in which the electron-hole pair is spatially separated from the doped hole. The emergence of these complex excited states stems from the distinct moiré potentials acting on holes and excitons, resulting in their different spatial distribution within the superlattice.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2026

Random Polarization Position Angle Behaviors across Bursts of Repeating Fast Radio Bursts

Fast radio bursts (FRBs), highly polarized, mostly have a nearly constant polarization position angle (PA) during each burst. Their PAs are observed to vary from burst to burst, with the statistical properties remaining stable across different observation sessions. We found that the intrinsic PAs of repeating FRBs are approximately Gaussian distributed, suggesting that the emission likely originates from a localized region within the neutron star's magnetosphere. A periodicity search of the PA time series using the Lomb-Scargle periodogram reveals no credible periodic signal in the period range from 10 ms to $10^7$ ms, and similar analyses of several active observations also yield null detections. We interpret these properties by extending the rotating vector model to include a dynamically evolving magnetosphere, in which the effective magnetic axis varies from burst to burst due to stochastic perturbations. In this framework, the observed PA distributions can naturally arise from geometric projection effects, and the absence of periodicity reflects the random wandering of the magnetic axis within a confined region. This scenario provides a natural explanation for both repeating and apparently non-repeating FRBs.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

Sivers Tomography from Charge and Angle Only

We propose a one-point charge-correlator (OPCC) probe of the Sivers effect in back-to-back deep-inelastic scattering. This measurement uses only the signs and directions of charged tracks, with no calorimetric or particle-identification information required. The observable weights the final state by its electric charge and measures the azimuthal correlation between the charge flow and the transverse spin of the proton. This probe is shown to be IRC finite and admits a factorization involving the usual Sivers distribution and a perturbatively calculable charge-weighted jet function for small transverse seperation $b\ll Λ_{\rm QCD}^{-1}$, with no reliance on non-perturbative fragmentation functions or track functions due to charge conservation. We validate the factorization against the full fixed-order QCD and present resummed predictions at N$^3$LL accuracy for the unpolarized distribution and N$^2$LL for the Sivers asymmetry. The OPCC provides a theoretically clean and simple experimental measurement, and establishes a charge-and-angle measurement paradigm for spin physics at a future Electron-Ion Collider.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

Exponentially improved quantum simulation of scalar QFT

Quantum simulations of scalar quantum field theories (QFT) provide important benchmarks for demonstrating quantum advantage. We revisit digitization in the occupation basis, which is typically hindered by unfavorable circuit depth scaling. We present an approach that achieves exponential reductions in circuit depth and significantly mitigates Trotter errors by diagonalizing field operators prior to their decomposition into Pauli strings. Focusing on a scalar QFT in 2+1 dimensions, we show that this method substantially reduces circuit depth and CNOT gate counts for time evolution. Using the Lorentzian energy-energy correlator as a benchmark observable, we find parameter regimes in which occupation-basis digitization converges more rapidly with respect to local truncation than the amplitude-basis approach of Jordan, Lee, and Preskill. These results provide both algorithmic advances and phenomenological benchmarks for studies of light-ray observables on near-term quantum devices.

hep-ph↗