We implement the finite-volume $N/D$ representation to study two-baryon interactions from lattice QCD data. We include the left-hand cut induced by one-pion exchange in this formalism, and study the $H$-dibaryon at the SU(3)$_\text{F}$-symmetric point, with a pion mass around $417$ MeV. The $N/D$ formalism is then compared to the Lüscher quantization condition, used to describe the same system via effective-range expansions. The results show a mild but statistically significant effect produced by the inclusion of the left-hand cut, especially on the binding energy of the $H$-dibaryon.

Dynamical quantum phase transitions (DQPTs) are an exciting paradigm of out-of-equilibrium criticality in many-body systems manifested in nonanalytic behavior in the return rate to the initial state following a sudden quench. While previous work has tried to distinguish between distinct types of DQPTs, such as regular and anomalous, or manifold and branch, a comprehensive understanding of why each type appears in a given scenario is still lacking. In this work, we propose a unified framework addressing this gap in terms of the energy structure of different product state configurations. In particular, while manifold DQPTs are governed by resonances within the initial state manifold, branch DQPTs are governed by resonances with a transitional manifold of states dynamically connected to the initial manifold by low-order processes. We show that the (ir)regularity of branch DQPTs is related to the multiplicity of this transitional manifold, and we also observe exotic periods of extended degeneracy in the return rate (beyond the conventional level crossing of a DQPT) which are also conditioned on the structure of this transitional manifold. We demonstrate this by studying quenches of two different configurations in the 1 + 1D Z_2 LGT to various parameter regimes. Our findings provide a dynamical mechanism underlying branch DQPTs and frames DQPTs as probes of resonant connectivity in constrained Hilbert spaces, paving the way to a more complete understanding of the multifaceted nature of dynamical criticality.

The capacity of a quantum many-body system to preserve global information -- encoded in the non-local correlations -- is a prerequisite for robust quantum computing. Unlike local degrees of freedom, large structures offer inherent resilience to noise, but their stability is often compromised by dynamical fragmentation and local excitations. In this work, we investigate under what initial conditions the quantum dynamics can sustain system-size cluster structures by examining false-vacuum decay dynamics in a 2D quantum Ising model. We find that while product states rapidly fragment into uncorrelated domains, initial-state entanglement suppresses the proliferation of true-vacuum bubbles and stabilises macroscopic connected clusters. We find that this passive stabilisation is not a mere consequence of entanglement entropy but rather depends on the specific pre-quench correlations. Our results establish a connection between initial-state preparation and the preservation of global structures, highlighting the role of entanglement for the passive protection of information in 2D quantum many-body simulation.

We study the profile of the flux tube in the SU(2) gauge model in 2+1 dimensions, with a particular attention to the so called "intrinsic width" which drives the exponential decay of the flux density at large transverse distances. This quantity is directly related to the confining mechanism which generates the flux tube: to test the properties of the latter we study a wide range of different values of lattice spacing, temperature and flux tube lengths and show that our data are precise enough to distinguish between different confining models. In particular we show that at high temperatures (just below the deconfinement transition) the data are perfectly described by an Ising-like effective model based on the Svetitsky-Yaffe mapping. At lower temperatures this approximation does not hold anymore. In this regime (which is the most interesting one from a physical point of view) we test several alternative proposals and show that the dual superconductor model is the one which better fits the data. However, this proposal is not fully satisfactory, because the values of the Ginzburg-Landau parameter extracted from the fits increase with the length of the flux tube, which is not a feature predicted by the model. This suggests that a more sophisticated model is needed to explain confinement in non-abelian gauge theories and, at the same time, that our data on the intrinsic width may be a powerful tool to benchmark these candidates.

We discuss matters related to the point that topological quantization in the strong interaction is a consequence of an infinite spacetime volume. Because of the ensuing order of limits, i.e. infinite volume prior to summing over topological sectors, CP is conserved. Here, we show that this reasoning is consistent with the construction of the path integral from steepest-descent contours. We reply to some objections that aim to support the case for CP violation in the strong interactions that are based on the role of the CP-odd theta-parameter in three-form effective theories, the correct sampling of all configurations in the dilute instanton gas approximation and the volume dependence of the partition function. We also show that the chiral effective field theory derived from taking the volume to infinity first is in no contradiction with analyses based on partially conserved axial currents.

In this article, we use two different methods for studying the mass spectra of fully-heavy baryons and pentaquarks. In the first section, we use state-of-the-art machine learning methods, such as deep neural networks and the Particle Transformer model architecture, to predict baryon masses directly from their quantum numbers, based on experimental information on hadrons from the Particle Data Group (PDG). We use this data-driven approach for the case of fully heavy baryons, and a large number of exotic pentaquark states, going much beyond the well-known $ P_c^+(4380) $ and $ P_c^+(4457) $ candidates. Subsequently,we extend the Gürsey-Radicati mass formula to incorporate the contributions of charm and bottom quarks, enabling analytical calculations for both ground and radially excited states of baryons and pentaquarks. The results obtained from both approaches demonstrate strong agreement with experimental data where available and make predictions for a number of unobserved states, including higher radial excitations. By addressing the question through both data-driven prediction and analytical modeling in different frameworks, this study offers complementary insights into the mass spectrum of conventional and exotic hadrons, guiding future experimental searches.