We provide the first non-perturbative lattice determination of the bubble nucleation rate as seeded by topological defects during a first order phase transition. Our case of study is the cubic anisotropy model, which can mimic the Higgs-plus-singlet setup for the electroweak theory, in $d=2+1$ spacetime dimensions, where bubbles are seeded by (line-like) domain walls. We compare the nucleation rate from the lattice with the semi-classical prediction based on the effective field theory living on the domain walls, including for the first time the fluctuation determinant away from spherical symmetry. Our results show very good agreement across all the considered parameter space.

The bootstrap method for quantum mechanics is a powerful tool for computing the energy eigenvalues of a Hamiltonian. However, we point out that this method suffers from an ambiguity problem: it fails to yield the correct spectrum when the potential contains different types of functions, such as polynomial and exponential terms. Similarly, the bootstrap method may break down when evaluating the expectation values of operators of different types. This issue can arise in a wide range of systems, including statistical models and matrix models. We propose three possible resolutions to this problem.

We present CJ26, the new CTEQ-JLab global QCD analysis that incorporates for the first time the complete suite of JLab 6 GeV DIS measurements and the first published JLab 12 GeV measurements. Focused on the large-$x$ region, the analysis utilizes the increased $Q^2$ leverage of the 12 GeV data to uniquely disentangle higher-twist effects from off-shell nucleon corrections. This leads to a highly accurate determination of the $n/p$ structure function ratio and the $d/u$ valence quark ratio, with uncertainties reduced by 30-50% and 5-10%, respectively. We highlight the critical role of experimental correlated systematic uncertainties in achieving this precision and provide the resulting NLO PDFs and structure functions in LHAPDF format for general use.

The real-time evolution of strongly interacting matter remains a frontier of fundamental physics, as classical simulations are hampered by exponential Hilbert space growth and rapid, unmanageable growth of quantum entanglement. This study reports the quantum simulation of hadron dynamics within a $(1+1)$-dimensional SU(2) lattice gauge theory using a 156-qubit IBM superconducting processor. Leveraging a hardware-efficient Loop-String-Hadron (LSH) encoding, we simulate the dynamics of the physical degrees of freedom on a $60$-site lattice in the weak-coupling regime, as a crucial step toward the continuum limit. The hardware data reveal confined meson propagation and early-time oscillations of the mesonic profile, from which we extract a breathing-mode frequency as a spectroscopic observable. Benchmarking against tensor-network simulations of the full LSH Hamiltonian and Pauli-propagation simulations of the noiseless circuit supports the validity of the physical approximation, the quantum algorithm and the observed dynamics within the accessible time window. These results show that physics-native encodings can enable scalable access to coherent non-Abelian real-time dynamics on noisy quantum hardware.

The encoding of lattice gauge theories onto quantum computers requires a discretization of the gauge field's Hilbert space on each link, which presents errors with respect to the Kogut--Susskind limit. In the electric basis, Hilbert space fragmentation has recently been shown to limit the excitation of large electric fields. Here, we leverage this to develop a formalism for estimating the size of truncation errors in the electric basis. Generically, the truncation error falls off as a factorial of the field truncation. Examples of this formalism are applied to the Schwinger model and a pure U(1) lattice gauge theory. For reasonable choices of parameters, we improve on previous error estimates by a factor of 10^{306}.

We investigate the static electromagnetic properties of three charm--strange molecular tetraquark candidates with quantum numbers $J^{P}=1^{+}$, namely the $D\bar{K}^{\ast}$, $D^{\ast}\bar{K}$, and $D^{\ast}\bar{K}^{\ast}$ systems. The analysis is carried out within the framework of QCD light-cone sum rules, using interpolating currents constructed from colour-singlet meson bilinears to reflect their molecular configurations. Both perturbative and non-perturbative photon contributions are included,and numerical predictions for the magnetic and electric quadrupole moments are obtained. The magnetic moments are found to lie in the range $1$--$3$ nuclear magnetons, with the largest value associated with the $D^{*}\bar{K}$ configuration. The quadrupole moments are an order of magnitude smaller, of order $10^{-3}\,\mathrm{fm}^{2}$, indicating only weak deviations from spherical charge distributions. A flavour decomposition shows that the magnetic response is dominated by the light quarks, while the charm-quark contribution is strongly suppressed, a feature naturally expected for loosely bound hadronic molecules. The present analysis extends QCD light-cone sum-rule studies of exotic hadrons by providing a systematic determination of the electromagnetic moments of the $D^{(\ast)}\bar K^{(\ast)}$ molecular systems. These results provide quantitative benchmarks that may help discriminate between molecular configurations and more compact multiquark interpretations and may offer useful guidance for future experimental studies of electromagnetic signatures of charm--strange exotic states.

Probing heavy new physics beyond the Standard Model (SM) increasingly relies on global effective field theory (EFT) likelihoods. We introduce differentiable, multi-scale EFT likelihoods that combine renormalization-group evolution, matching, observable predictions, and experimental constraints in a single differentiable framework. This enables modern gradient-based frequentist and Bayesian inference in large parameter spaces. We demonstrate these capabilities in two 374-parameter SMEFT analyses, making basis-independent, fully multi-scale global EFT analyses feasible in practice.