The quantum simulation of topological phases in (2+1)D quantum electrodynamics with Wilson fermions provides a promising route toward realizing topological phenomena in near-term lattice experiments. We show that the commonly used staggered-fermion discretizations in Hamiltonian gauge theories possesses an exact time-reversal symmetry, which forbids the emergence of nontrivial topological phases and has led to confusion in the existing literature. In this work, we resolve this obstacle by systematically analyzing fermion discretization effects in (2+1)D lattice Hamiltonians of fermions coupled to U(1) gauge fields that satisfy Gauss' law. We show that Wilson fermions, already in the minimal one-flavor theory, naturally enable topological regimes with nonzero Chern numbers, and that the two-flavor extension at finite chemical potential further enriches the accessible topological structure. We develop gauge-invariant diagnostics of topological response, including many-body Chern numbers and current correlators that remain robust probes at weak coupling. Finally, through extensive exact diagonalization calculations across both flavor settings, we characterize the spectrum, correlators, and topological invariants, providing a concrete foundation for near-term quantum simulations of topological phases in lattice field theories. The implications of this work for quantum simulations of lattice field theory are analyzed in a joint submission [1].

We present a first systematic study of $I=1/2$ proton-$\Lambda$ ($p$-$\Lambda$) scattering from lattice QCD, using seven sets of $(2+1)$-flavor lattice ensembles with pion masses spanning 135-317 MeV and three lattice spacings with $a=(0.052,0.077, 0.105)$ fm. Using Lüscher's finite-volume method, effective range expansion and chiral/continuum extrapolations, we obtain the inverse of scattering length and effective range for the $^1S_0$ channel as 0.177(83) GeV and 2.9(1.4) fm, and for the $^3S_1$ channel as 0.016(76) GeV and 1.8(1.1) fm. From the derived S-wave phase shifts, we provide an estimate of the $p-\Lambda$ scattering cross section. Our results for scattering length, effective range and cross sections are in good agreement with available experimental measurements. We also find that the $p-\Lambda$ system sustains attractive interactions. These results provide critical input for the unification of nuclear force theories and the construction of neutron star equations of state.

We present a lattice QCD spectroscopy study of the conjectured H dibaryon for 5 different channels at nine different temperatures. The H dibaryon operator is constructed with five different channels which are flavor singlet, flavor 27-plet, $\Lambda \Lambda$, $N \Xi$ and $\Sigma \Sigma$. The nine different temperatures range from $T/T_c =0.24$ to $T/T_c = 1.90$. The simulations are performed on anisotropic lattice with $N_f=2+1$ flavours of clover fermion at quark mass which corresponds to $m_\pi=384(4) {\rm MeV} $. The thermal ensembles were provided by the FASTSUM collaboration and the zero temperature ensembles by the Hadspec collaboration. The simulations show that the mass of H-dibaryon for 27-plet channel is the largest at different temperatures, while the mass for $\Sigma \Sigma $ channel is the lightest. We also calculate the spectral function of the correlation function of H dibaryon for five channels. The spectral density distributions exhibit similar behavior for the five channels. The mass differences $\Delta m = m_H - 2\,m_{\Lambda} $ of H-dibaryon and $\Lambda$ pair at $T/T_c =0.24 $ for five channels are also estimated. The results show that $\Delta m = m_H - 2\,m_{\Lambda} $ for channels of 27-plet and $\Lambda \Lambda$ is positive, while $\Delta m = m_H - 2\,m_{\Lambda} $ for channels of singlet, $N \Xi$ and $\Sigma \Sigma$ is negative.

Very recently, a lattice QCD collaboration has explored threshold pion electroproduction near the physical pion mass and has simulated the relevant multipole amplitudes. Different multipole amplitudes are usually entangled in experimental data, and thus extracting each of them independently from first principles provides additional essential constraints on phenomenological theories. We use nonperturbative Hamiltonian theory to investigate the electroproduction process, providing an advanced approach with additional two-particle coupled channels to acquire the physical electric dipole amplitudes from the original lattice QCD data. We note that future lattice QCD simulations of the electric dipole amplitudes at higher energies will be much closer to their physical counterparts than the current ones near threshold. In addition, we obtain a new expression which, like that of Lellouch-Lüscher, depends only on the final-state interactions but provides both the real and imaginary parts of the transition amplitudes.

We report on the determination of the gradient flow scales in $N_f=2+1$ QCD using highly improved staggered quark (HISQ) ensembles generated by the HotQCD Collaboration for bare gauge couplings ranging from $\beta = 6.423$ to $8.400$. Using bottomonium splittings, kaon decay constant, the decay constant of unmixed $\eta_s$ meson and the $\phi$ meson mass we obtained the values of the gradient flow scales in physical units, $\sqrt{t_0} = 0.14428(48)$~fm and $w_0 = 0.17391(52)$~fm. Using the same physical inputs we revisit the determination of the potential $r_1$ scale and find $r_1 = 0.3112(24)$~fm. As a byproduct of our study we obtain the running of the gauge coupling in the gradient flow scheme. We find that within the uncertainties the running of the gradient flow coupling obtained on the lattice is compatible with the perturbative results up to flow radius $\sqrt{8 \tau_F}=0.15$ fm.

This work is the second installment of a series on the loop-string-hadron (LSH) approach to SU(3) lattice Yang-Mills theory. Here, we present the infinite-dimensional matrix representation for arbitrary gauge-invariant operators at a trivalent vertex, which results in a standalone framework for computations that supersedes the underlying Schwinger-boson framework. To that end, we present a partial summary of the commutation relations and use it to evaluate the result of applying any gauge-invariant operator on the LSH basis states introduced in Part I (arXiv:2407.19181). Classical calculations in the LSH basis run significantly faster than equivalent calculations performed using Schwinger bosons. A companion code script is provided, which implements the derived formulas and aims to facilitate rapid progress towards Hamiltonian-based calculations of quantum chromodynamics.

We study bitstring measurements from the publicly available Aquila Rydberg-atom platform using a two-leg ladder that encodes a truncated lattice gauge model as a practical benchmark that can be directly implemented and simulated on current hardware. Our goal is diagnostic: we analyze how errors propagate into bitstring probability distributions and downstream information measures, focusing on ladders with 6, 8, and 10 rungs and $\mathcal{O}(10^3)$ shots. We introduce cumulative probability distributions as a compact way to compare Aquila data with high-accuracy density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) and exact references, and we use optimally filtered mutual information primarily as a robust device-data diagnostic rather than a direct entanglement estimator. By isolating finite sampling, sorting fidelity, adiabatic ramp-up, Rabi-frequency ramp-down, and readout errors, we find that readout mitigation performs well in controlled DMRG tests. Applying the same procedure on hardware shows accuracy limitations for the leading probabilities estimation, indicating that readout errors are not dominant and that residual error is instead driven by imperfect state preparation.