The gluon structure of the proton and of nuclei is far less well-known than the quark structure; a primary mission of the planned Electron-Ion Collider is to measure many aspects of gluon distributions for the first time. I will discuss insights from recent lattice QCD calculations into this structure, including first results describing the pressure distribution in the proton, and exotic glue in nuclei. These results constitute predictions which will be tested at the Electron-Ion Collider, and provide guidance as to the kinematics required for the experiment to extract key physical quantities at target precision.  

Title: Constraining dense matter properties from thermal and spin evolution of neutron stars

Abstract:  Neutron star interiors are the only laboratory to harbor cold (temperatures less than tens of MeV) and dense (densities higher than normal nuclear density but lower than those where perturbative QCD is applicable) matter in the universe. In this talk, I will report on our recent endeavors to answer the intriguing question: are exotic degrees of freedom realized in the densest cores of the most compact stars?

We analyze the thermal states of accreting neutron stars in quiescence, confining the studies within nucleons-only framework, and find the stringent limitation imposed by observation of the hottest and coldest sources disfavors the assumption without exotic matter. In addition, combining temperature and spin frequency data I will describe an interesting feature of hybrid stars with a sharp interface between nuclear matter mantle and quark matter core: capability of damping density oscillations e.g. r-modes in neutron stars that otherwise cannot be explained in the standard scenario of purely hadronic matter. These results we obtained could therefore provide theoretical predictions of the presence of exotic matter for future observations to confirm or rule out.