Signatures of baryon junctions with future EIC

Valence quarks carry the baryon number kinematically. Dynamically, in a high-energy interaction, this association is not obvious and may not be true. In particular, it has been suggested that a baryon junction, an object naturally arising in a gauge-invariant description of the baryon wavefunction, traces the flow of the baryon number across large rapidity gaps. In this talk, I will discuss the theory behind the proposals aimed at uncovering the driving force behind the flow of baryon number in experiments, ranging from deep inelastic scattering to heavy ion collisions. We will see how combining studies at RHIC and at the future EIC could be used to test universality of the baryon number transport mechanism. A key observable, the distribution of net baryon number in rapidity, strongly depends on the Regge intercepts of exotic states with hidden baryon number. I will present a framework for analyzing these states using large‑N topological expansion and the Feynman-Wilson analog gas model. Finally, I will discuss how such exotic states may be identified as glueball candidates in lattice QCD, providing a complement to the ongoing and future experimental studies.