The QCD Equation of State with $N_f=3$ massless quark flavours is determined non-perturbatively over a broad range of temperatures, extending from the electroweak scale down to 3 GeV, and smoothly connecting to the low-temperature regime. The comparison with perturbative predictions shows that, even at temperatures approaching the electroweak scale, the Equation of State can be accurately described only by adding terms beyond the known perturbative series, including non-perturbative contributions. The strategy that allows this investigation in the previously unexplored high-temperature regime combines shifted boundary conditions with a determination of the lines of constant physics based on the running of a non-perturbatively defined renormalized coupling. This methodology is general and can be applied to QCD with four or five massive quark flavours.

Topological invariants and their associated anomalies have played a crucial role in understanding low-energy phenomena in quantum field theories. In lattice gauge theory, the standard $\mathbb{Z}$-valued Atiyah-Singer index is formulated via the overlap Dirac operator through the Ginsparg-Wilson relation, but extensions to more general topological invariants have remained limited. In this work, we propose a lattice formulation of the Arf-Brown-Kervaire (ABK) invariant, which takes values in $\mathbb{Z}_8$. The ABK invariant arises in Majorana fermion partition functions with reflection symmetry on two-dimensional non-oriented manifolds, and its definition involves an infinite sum over Dirac eigenvalues that must be properly regularized. By carefully treating the boundary conditions, with and without a domain-wall mass term, we demonstrate that the ABK invariant can be extracted from Pfaffians of the Wilson Dirac operator. We further provide numerical verification on two-dimensional lattices, showing that the $\mathbb{Z}_8$-valued results on the torus, Klein bottle, real projective plane, and Möbius strip agree with those in the continuum theory.

Proton-proton fusion is the fundamental weak reaction initiating stellar energy production, and a first-principles determination of its matrix element remains a long-standing goal of nuclear theory. We present a lattice QCD calculation of the pp fusion matrix element at m_pi~432 MeV. We implement Lellouch-Luscher (LL) finite-volume (FV) corrections within a 2+J->2 framework, accounting for two-nucleon (2N) rescattering, to relate FV matrix elements to infinite-volume counterparts. Excited-state contamination is suppressed using bi-local nucleon-nucleon interpolating operators and a variational analysis with three lowest momenta. This enables determination of 2N energy spectrum and scattering parameters via Luscher's FV formalism. Before including rescattering effects in the LL factor, we obtain <d|J|pp>/g_A = 0.984(10), where g_A is the axial charge. The deviation from unity indicates a small nonvanishing 2-body current contribution. Our analysis shows that rescattering effects in LL factors substantially modify the 2-body contribution, while large uncertainties in 2N scattering parameters propagate strongly into FV corrections. Thus, precise determination of the 2-body low-energy constant L_{1,A} remains highly challenging with current lattice inputs. Despite the large uncertainty, L_{1,A}=6.0(7.1) fm^3 is compatible, at the level of naturalness, with phenomenological extractions. This work demonstrates feasibility and intrinsic challenges of ab initio lattice QCD calculations of weak 2N reactions, and establishes a foundation for future studies at or near the physical pion mass.

It has been speculated that the CP symmetry of 4D SU(3) Yang-Mills theory at $\theta=\pi$ is spontaneously broken in the confined phase, and it is recovered precisely at the deconfining temperature. The direct simulation of the theory at $\theta=\pi$ is, however, difficult due to the sign problem. We therefore simulate the theory with an imaginary theta parameter and perform analytic continuation to the real theta to explore the phase diagram. We implement the stout smearing technique in the hybrid Monte Carlo simulation to recover the topological property of the gauge field. The smearing-time dependence of the observable is investigated using the reweighting method with respect to the smearing step parameters, and a clear scaling behavior is observed. The order parameter of the CP symmetry is then computed in the scaling region to detect symmetry breaking. We report preliminary results on the expected CP breaking and restoration temperature.

We investigate the $S$-wave scatterings of $\Lambda_c\Lambda_c$ and $\Lambda_{c}\bar \Lambda_{c}$ systems within a unified chiral effective field theory framework up to next-to-leading order. The contact low-energy coupling constants are determined by fitting to the lattice QCD results for the $\Lambda_c\Lambda_c$ scattering phase shift at an unphysical pion mass. After extrapolating to the physical pion mass, we find a repulsive interaction in the $I(J^P)=0(0^{+})$ $\Lambda_c\Lambda_c$ channel, consistent with the lattice QCD simulation. On the $\Lambda_{c}\bar \Lambda_{c}$ side, using the fitted contact low-energy constants, we predict the phase shifts and potentials for $\Lambda_c \bar\Lambda_c$ scattering in the $I(J^{PC})=0(0^{-+})$ and $0(1^{--})$ channels. Attractive interactions are found in both channels, each allowing for the formation of bound states. In particular, the attraction in the $0(1^{--})$ $\Lambda_c \bar\Lambda_c$ channel is stronger. In addition, our analysis reveals that the spin-spin term caused by the two-pion exchange contributes significantly to the interactions, leading to a distinct mass splitting between the $0(0^{-+})$ and $0(1^{--})$ $\Lambda_c \bar\Lambda_c$ channels.

Recent lattice evidence suggests the chiral phase transition in QCD is second-order for $N_f \ge 2$ massless flavors. We constrain CFT descriptions of a critical line in temperature $T$ and imaginary baryon chemical potential $\theta_B = i\mu_B/T$. An 't Hooft anomaly at general $\theta_B$ constrains the transition even at $\theta_B = 0$, leaving only three minimal scenarios. The best-motivated scenario for $N_f\ge3$, and perhaps also $N_f = 2$, is beyond Ginzburg-Landau, featuring a conformal manifold of $\theta_B$-dependent universality classes with an exactly marginal operator related to baryon density.

We study the mass spectra and various mass differences of heavy hadrons containing one or more bottom quarks using MILC's $N_f = 2+1+1$ HISQ gauge ensembles at three lattice spacings. For the valence quarks, we employ a combination of lattice actions: the NRQCD action is used for bottom quarks, the anisotropic Clover action for charm quarks, and the $O(a)$-improved Wilson--Clover action for strange and lighter (up/down) quarks. Heavy hadron operators with at least one bottom quark are constructed by considering all possible combinations with charm, strange, and light quarks corresponding to various quantum numbers.

We present a nonperturbative Hamiltonian framework (NPHF) to address the general $N$-body problem. This framework rigorously connects finite-volume spectra from lattice QCD to scattering observables from experiment. To demonstrate its applicability, we extract the resonance parameters of the $\omega$ meson by simultaneously analyzing the isoscalar $3\pi$ and isovector $2\pi$ systems. The Hamiltonian unifies single-particle $\omega$, two-particle $\rho\pi$, and three-particle $\pi\pi\pi$ dynamics within a single unitary formalism. Using leading lattice QCD spectra from the Chinese Lattice QCD Collaboration at $m_\pi$ = 208 and 305 MeV, we perform a fit in the isovector and isoscalar channels, accurately describe the lattice spectra and obtain robust determinations of the $\rho$ and $\omega$ pole positions. This work establishes a foundational approach for extracting resonance dynamics from finite-volume spectra. Given the ubiquity of three-body dynamics in exotic hadrons, halo nuclei, and neutron star matter, this general formalism holds broad relevance across particle, nuclear, and astrophysical physics.

A fundamental issue in the renormalization-group (RG) theory of critical phenomena concerns the allowed values of critical exponents that are consistent with the continuous nature of a phase transition. Here we conjecture a lower bound for the length-scale exponent $\nu$, which should hold for the large class of continuous transitions associated with $d$-dimensional Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson (LGW) $\Phi^4$ theories with a multicomponent scalar field ${\varphi}$ and a unique ${\varphi}\cdot {\varphi}$ quadratic term (including some extensions with fermionic and gauge fields), describing many universality classes of critical phenomena. If $\Delta_\varphi=(d-2+\eta)/2$ is the dimension of the order-parameter field ${\varphi}$, and $\Delta_\varepsilon=d-1/\nu$ is the RG dimension of the energy operator $\varepsilon$, which can be identified with $[{\varphi}\cdot {\varphi}]$ (the squared field with a proper subtraction of the mixing with the identity), we conjecture the inequality $\Delta_\varepsilon \ge 2 \Delta_\varphi$, which implies $\nu \ge (2-\eta)^{-1}$ and $\gamma = (2-\eta)\nu\ge 1$. These inequalities are supported by general arguments for ferromagnetic lattice models, by $\epsilon$-expansion results for generic LGW $\Phi^4$ theories close to four dimensions, exact relations for two-dimensional minimal conformal field theories, and are consistent with all further known (numerical, perturbative, and exact) results for LGW $\Phi^4$ theories. In particular, since unitarity requires $\eta\ge 0$, the above inequality implies $\nu\ge 1/2$ for unitary theories. This lower bound is more restrictive than $\nu > 1/d$, derived by noting that $\nu=1/d$ characterizes the singular finite-size behavior at first-order transitions.

We study the continuum limit of branched polymers (BPs) with loops coupled to Ising spins at the zero-temperature critical point. It is known that the continuum partition function can be represented by a Hermitian two-matrix model, and we propose a string field theory whose Dyson-Schwinger equation coincides with the loop equation of this continuum matrix model. By setting the matrix size to one, we analyze a convergent non-perturbative partition function expressed as a two-dimensional integral, and show that it satisfies a third-order linear differential equation. In contrast, in the absence of coupling to the critical Ising model, the continuum partition function of pure BPs with loops is known to satisfy the Airy equation. From the viewpoint of two-dimensional quantum gravity, we introduce a non-perturbative loop amplitude that serves as a solution to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation incorporating contributions from all genera. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the same Wheeler-DeWitt equation can also be derived through the stochastic quantization.