{"id":"74453e69-3616-47c8-9a09-bce3d1a1ef71","arxiv_id":"2603.18700","paper_version":1,"verdict":"UNVERDICTED","confidence":"LOW","novelty_score":6.0,"correctness_risk":"unknown","formal_verification":"none","parameter_count":0,"one_line_summary":"Lattice results for hadronic screening masses (including baryonic and preliminary non-static mesonic modes) up to the electroweak scale show persistent higher-order and non-perturbative deviations from 3D effective-theory predictions.","lead":"Lattice calculations of hadronic screening masses in thermal QCD now reach from the GeV scale up to the electroweak scale. The results show that higher-order and non-perturbative effects remain visible even at these extreme temperatures, refining the microscopic picture of the early-universe plasma.","discovery_kind":"extension","skeptic_critique":{"model":"grok-4.5","headline":"No significant objection identified beyond the reader's already-correct diagnosis that the supplied full text is the wrong paper.","rationale":"The reader correctly extracted the strongest claim and the weakest assumption solely from the abstract and correctly set UNVERDICTED / LOW confidence because the supplied full-text block is an entirely different paper. My second-pass check confirms that no lattice data, equations, or error budgets belonging to 2603.18700 appear in the provided context. Therefore no deeper load-bearing flaw can be diagnosed, and no change to the reader's verdict is warranted. The concrete test simply restores the missing manuscript so that the continuum-control assumption can finally be examined.","tokens_in":5616,"tokens_out":409,"duration_ms":4127,"concrete_test":"Retrieve the genuine PDF or arXiv source of 2603.18700 and verify that continuum-extrapolated screening masses (with quoted systematics) are tabulated for T up to the electroweak scale and that those systematics are smaller than the reported deviations from the 3D effective-theory prediction; if the correct paper is still missing, leave the verdict UNVERDICTED.","verdict_should_be":"UNCHANGED","load_bearing_attack":"The reader's weakest_assumption (that residual lattice systematics are smaller than the claimed deviations from 3D EQCD) is the right load-bearing condition for the abstract's claim. However, the CACHEABLE PAPER SOURCE CONTEXT contains only the unrelated OPL-with-Limited-Supply manuscript; none of the lattice ensembles, continuum extrapolations, finite-volume checks, or numerical screening-mass values for arXiv:2603.18700 are present. Consequently no further technical soft spot inside the actual lattice argument can be isolated or stress-tested. The mismatch itself already forces the UNVERDICTED status; inventing an additional concern about continuum control or non-perturbative matching would be pure speculation.","agreement_with_reader":"agree"},"referee_report":{"model":"grok-4.5","summary":"The submitted abstract claims novel lattice QCD results for hadronic screening masses (baryonic and preliminary non-static mesonic) at temperatures from the GeV scale to the electroweak scale, obtained via new theoretical and computational strategies, and compared against the perturbative expansion of the three-dimensional effective theory (EQCD). The comparison is said to reveal persistent higher-order and non-perturbative effects. However, the full manuscript text supplied under this arXiv identifier and title is an unrelated machine-learning paper on Off-Policy Learning with Limited Supply (OPLS) in contextual bandits for recommender systems; it contains no lattice ensembles, continuum extrapolations, screening-mass data, or EQCD comparisons.","tokens_in":5786,"tokens_out":595,"duration_ms":11197,"significance":"If the abstract’s claims were supported by a matching lattice manuscript with controlled continuum and finite-volume results, the work would be significant for non-perturbative thermal QCD, testing the reach of dimensional reduction up to electroweak temperatures. As supplied, the manuscript has zero significance for that claim: the body is a completely different paper on constrained off-policy learning, so no scientific contribution to lattice QCD or screening masses can be evaluated or credited.","major_comments":[{"comment":"The full manuscript text does not match the title, abstract, primary category (hep-lat), or arXiv:2603.18700. It is instead the complete text of an unrelated WWW ’26 paper on Off-Policy Learning with Limited Supply (contextual bandits, coupon allocation, OPLS algorithm). No lattice QCD content, ensembles, continuum extrapolations, finite-volume studies, screening-mass values, or EQCD comparisons appear anywhere in the body. The central claim of the abstract is therefore unsupported by any verifiable material in the submission.","section":null},{"comment":"Because the body contains none of the lattice results invoked in the abstract, it is impossible to assess the load-bearing assumption that residual systematics (continuum, volume, renormalization) are smaller than the reported deviations from the 3D effective theory. The comparison that constitutes the paper’s strongest claim cannot be inspected.","section":null}],"minor_comments":[{"comment":"Even the abstract alone is insufficient for a proceedings-style claim of ‘persistent higher-order effects \\ldots up to the electroweak scale’ without any numerical tables, figures, or error budgets.","section":null}],"recommendation":"reject","confidential_remarks":"The CACHEABLE PAPER SOURCE CONTEXT and full-text block are the wrong paper entirely (OPL/ML instead of lattice QCD). This is not a borderline or incomplete submission; it is a complete mismatch. I recommend desk rejection or an immediate request for the correct PDF. No technical review of the claimed QCD results is possible from the supplied files."},"author_rebuttal":null,"desk_editor":{"model":"grok-4.5","letter":"The abstract of 2603.18700 is clear and potentially useful: lattice QCD screening masses, including baryonic and preliminary non-static mesonic modes, pushed from the GeV range all the way to the electroweak scale, then compared with the 3D effective theory. If the numbers hold, the claim that higher-order and non-perturbative effects remain visible even at those temperatures is a solid data point for thermal QCD and early-universe work.\n\nWhat is new is the temperature window and the inclusion of baryonic and non-static channels. The framing is standard and honest: external comparison of lattice data against an independent high-T expansion, not a circular fit. That is the right scientific posture.\n\nThe soft spot is decisive and not subtle. The full-text block we were given is an entirely different paper (Off-Policy Learning with Limited Supply). No ensembles, no continuum extrapolations, no finite-volume studies, no error budgets, no tables of screening masses. The reader’s diagnosis is correct: every numerical claim is invisible, so the central comparison cannot be verified. The load-bearing assumption—that residual lattice systematics are smaller than the reported deviations from 3D EQCD—remains untested. I am not inventing further technical objections; there is simply nothing to inspect.\n\nThis is for lattice and thermal-QCD specialists who already follow the authors’ program. A serious referee should see the real manuscript once the correct PDF is supplied; the abstract alone is enough to justify peer review rather than desk rejection. Until the actual lattice results appear, I would not cite it or bring it to reading group. Get the right file and re-evaluate.","headline":"Abstract promises first non-perturbative screening masses (baryonic + non-static mesonic) up to the electroweak scale, but the supplied full text is an unrelated ML paper, so the lattice claims cannot be checked.","tokens_in":6350,"tokens_out":449,"would_cite":false,"duration_ms":4322,"reading_group":"no","serious_thinker":"unclear","would_accept_peer_review":true},"rs_alignment":null,"lean_confirmation":null,"pith_extraction":{"msc":[],"pacs":["12.38.Gc","12.38.Mh","11.10.Wx"],"model":"grok-4.5","headline":"Hadronic screening masses on the lattice keep showing higher-order and non-perturbative effects all the way up to the electroweak scale.","keywords":["thermal QCD","hadronic screening masses","lattice QCD","three-dimensional effective theory","electroweak scale","non-perturbative effects","baryonic modes"],"falsifier":"A continuum extrapolation of the same screening masses at a still higher temperature (or with significantly smaller lattice spacing and larger volume) that collapses onto the next-to-leading-order three-dimensional effective-theory curve within the quoted errors would falsify the claim of persistent higher-order effects.","tokens_in":6528,"feed_emoji":"🔥","tokens_out":843,"duration_ms":12945,"temperature":0.7,"pith_summary":"This paper reports new lattice-QCD calculations of hadronic screening masses—the inverse correlation lengths that tell how far strong interactions reach inside a hot medium—from a few GeV all the way to the electroweak scale. Because novel theoretical and computational tools now make these temperatures accessible non-perturbatively, the authors can compare the measured screening masses (including baryonic channels and preliminary non-static mesonic modes) directly with the asymptotic predictions of the three-dimensional effective theory obtained from the high-temperature expansion. The comparison shows that higher-order corrections, some of them non-perturbative, remain sizable even at the highest temperatures studied. The result matters because it means that a purely perturbative picture of the quark-gluon plasma is still incomplete at energies relevant to the early universe and to heavy-ion collisions, forcing a re-examination of the microscopic structure of thermal QCD.","feed_headline":"Screening masses keep non-perturbative traces to electroweak T","feed_subtitle":"Lattice QCD shows higher-order effects in the hot plasma remain large even at 100 GeV","key_machinery":"Hadronic screening masses extracted from spatial correlators on the lattice; they quantify the medium’s correlation length and are compared with the systematic expansion of the dimensionally reduced three-dimensional effective theory valid at asymptotically high temperature.","core_discovery":"Lattice results for hadronic screening masses, including baryonic modes and preliminary non-static mesonic modes, deviate from the leading perturbative predictions of the three-dimensional effective theory by amounts that stay visible up to the electroweak scale, revealing persistent higher-order effects of both perturbative and non-perturbative origin.","pith_inferences":["The same lattice technology could be used to extract the Debye mass and other transport coefficients at electroweak temperatures, testing whether the same higher-order effects appear.","If the residual non-perturbative pieces scale as expected from the magnetic sector, they may set a lower bound on the temperature at which a pure three-dimensional description becomes quantitative.","The persistence of these effects suggests that holographic or other non-perturbative models calibrated at lower temperatures may still be useful near the electroweak scale."],"forward_implications":["Perturbative descriptions of the quark-gluon plasma remain incomplete even at electroweak temperatures.","Baryonic and non-static mesonic screening channels must be retained when modelling the early-universe plasma.","Dimensionally reduced effective theories need systematic inclusion of non-perturbative matching coefficients up to the electroweak scale.","Heavy-ion phenomenology at the highest LHC energies still requires non-perturbative input for correlation lengths."],"fun_headline_variants":["Lattice QCD: hadronic screening masses retain non-perturbative effects to electroweak T","Screening masses deviate from 3D EQCD predictions even at electroweak scale","Hot QCD plasma shows persistent higher-order screening effects up to 100 GeV","Baryonic and mesonic screening masses reveal non-perturbative QCD to electroweak T","Thermal QCD screening lengths keep non-perturbative traces far above GeV scale"],"cache_read_input_tokens":128,"weakest_assumption_plain":"The new lattice strategies that reach electroweak temperatures produce continuum-extrapolated, finite-volume-controlled results whose residual systematics are smaller than the observed deviations from the three-dimensional effective theory.","fun_headline_variants_meta":{"raw":{"variants":["Lattice QCD: hadronic screening masses retain non-perturbative effects to electroweak T","Screening masses deviate from 3D EQCD predictions even at electroweak scale","Hot QCD plasma shows persistent higher-order screening effects up to 100 GeV","Baryonic and mesonic screening masses reveal non-perturbative QCD to electroweak T","Thermal QCD screening lengths keep non-perturbative traces far above GeV scale"]},"model":"grok-4.5","effort":"low","cost_usd":0.005014,"raw_usage":{"total_tokens":1323,"prompt_tokens":683,"num_sources_used":0,"completion_tokens":110,"cost_in_usd_ticks":50140000,"prompt_tokens_details":{"text_tokens":683,"audio_tokens":0,"image_tokens":0,"cached_tokens":128},"completion_tokens_details":{"audio_tokens":0,"reasoning_tokens":530,"accepted_prediction_tokens":0,"rejected_prediction_tokens":0}},"tokens_in":683,"tokens_out":110,"duration_ms":5013,"temperature":1.0,"reasoning_tokens":530,"cache_read_input_tokens":128,"cache_creation_input_tokens":0},"cache_creation_input_tokens":0},"created_at":"2026-07-13T22:26:38.082778+00:00","model_set":{"reader":"grok-4.5"},"falsifier":"A continuum extrapolation of the same screening masses at a still higher temperature (or with significantly smaller lattice spacing and larger volume) that collapses onto the next-to-leading-order three-dimensional effective-theory curve within the quoted errors would falsify the claim of persistent higher-order effects.","supporting_citations":[],"review_version":1}