We present a new determination of the $\bar b \bar b u d$ ($J^P=1^+$, $I=0$) tetraquark binding energy using lattice QCD with domain-wall light quarks and a nonperturbatively tuned three-parameter anisotropic-clover ``relativistic'' action for the $b$ quarks. We also perform a direct comparison with a reanalysis of data generated in prior work using a lattice-NRQCD action for the $b$ quarks and otherwise identical parameters. Using the new data with relativistic $b$ quarks from seven different ensembles with multiple lattice spacings and pion masses, we perform combined chiral and continuum extrapolations and obtain $(m_{T_{bb}}-m_B-m_{B^*})_{\rm RHQ}=(-79 \pm 23)$ MeV. For the NRQCD data from five ensembles, we perform chiral-only extrapolations and obtain $(m_{T_{bb}}-m_B-m_{B^*})_{\rm NRQCD}=(-74 \pm 17 \pm 10)$ MeV. The lower magnitude of the results obtained here, compared to the original analysis in Phys. Rev. D 100, 014503 (2019), is due to the use of the symmetric parts of the correlation matrices with local four-quark operators only.

A normalizing-flow-based implementation of the density-of-states approach has recently been used to successfully reconstruct the partition function of (1+1)D scalar lattice field theory. In this preliminary work, we extend this framework to a lattice gauge theory by employing gauge-equivariant normalizing flows to reconstruct the density of states of pure (1+1)D U(1) lattice gauge theory, both with and without a $\theta$-term. In the absence of a $\theta$-term, we first demonstrate that the normalizing-flow-based reconstruction of the density of states reproduces the known analytic results for this theory. We further show that, in the presence of a $\theta$-term, this formulation enables the generation of gauge-field configurations at fixed values of the topological charge.

The manifestly gauge-invariant and non-perturbatively complete lattice formulation of the weak interactions and the Brout-Englert-Higgs effect is connected to the usual perturbative description in phenomenology via the Fröhlich-Morchio-Strocchi mechanism. However, slight differences between the two have been observed, which can potentially be accounted for by augmenting perturbation theory. We report on our ongoing lattice investigations of these additional effects using a setup with two generations of leptons coupled vectorially to the gauge-Higgs system. We explore the spectrum, inner structure in terms of weak (quasi-)PDFs, and spectral functions of the system to eventually compare cross sections to experimental results.

Electromagnetic corrections to the $n$-point functions of lattice QCD can be evaluated using a position-space photon propagator defined in infinite volume. Here we address the computational challenge arising from the volume-squared sum over the endpoints of the photon propagator. We consider a class of integral representations of the photon propagator that lead to a factorization of the two volume-sums, the Fourier representation being one instance thereof. An alternative choice is based on expressing the free scalar propagator as the autoconvolution of the corresponding five-dimensional propagator. We compare the performance of three different choices in the context of electromagnetic corrections to the hadronic vacuum polarization, on a gauge ensemble of size $48^3\times128$ with a pion mass of 286 MeV. As an outlook, we discuss more generally the factorization of sums over internal vertices, taking as an example the hadronic light-by-light contribution to the muon $(g-2)$.

We update the results of the nucleon axial-vector charge with the third ensemble of the PACS10 gauge configurations, which are generated by the PACS Collaboration at the physical point with lattice volume larger than $(10\;{\rm fm})^4$ and three different lattice spacings, 0.085 fm (coarse), 0.063 fm (fine) and 0.041 fm (superfine). Although the results of the first two ensembles generated at the coarse and fine lattice spacings are published, our study using the third one generated at the superfine lattice spacing is still underway. In this work, the low-energy relations arising from the partially conserved axial-vector current (PCAC) relation are also examined in terms of the nucleon three-point functions to verify whether the lattice QCD data correctly reproduces the physics in the continuum within the statistical accuracy.

We report on our continued efforts to measure the glueball and meson spectra in SU($N$) Yang-Mills theory and QCD with the aim of extrapolating to the large-$N$ limit. In particular, we document the computation of the low-lying SU($6$) spectrum. We employ a multilevel sampling algorithm to measure glueball correlators to reduce statistical noise in the large-time separation limit. The gluon operator basis is composed of spatial Wilson loop measured at different levels of (APE) smearing, with vanishing momentum selected to maximise the orthonogality of the operators and their overlap with the lowest lying states. We also report on analogous computations for the $J=0,1$ non-singlet meson spectrum with two degenerate quark flavors.

To investigate gauge theories with near-term quantum computers warrants exploration of nontraditional quantum simulators to find resource-efficient simulation protocols and ultimately access exotic features of different field theories, including unexplored regimes of the QCD phase diagram. In this work, using superconducting transmon qutrit processors, we formulate and implement a pulse-based, three-level, hybrid analog-digital simulation protocol of the (1+1) dimensional Abelian Higgs model (AHM) on two sites. Alongside this approach, we experimentally realize a gate-based implementation of the same model. Using the natural mapping of the three-level truncation of the transmon Hilbert space to the spin-1 truncated AHM, we observe real time dynamics of AHM field observables, which are analogous to electric field operators, with both protocols. For the analog-digital protocol, we engineer a Floquet simulation with a combination of local analog drives, driven modification of the natural interaction Hamiltonian of the two transmons, and dynamical decoupling pulses. For the digital protocol, we use a state-of-the-art qutrit processor to implement a Trotterized simulation of the model incorporating advanced error mitigation techniques. We further discuss the scalability of the two approaches, and their potential to be extended to the simulation of other model Hamiltonians. Our experiments demonstrate a viable platform for future studies of spin-1 and SU(3) based gauge theory models on current and near-term transmon qutrit processors.

Strong magnetic fields modify the force that confines quarks inside hadrons and make it direction-dependent. Using quark-antiquark potentials obtained from lattice simulations as inputs to a quark potential model, we investigate how the anisotropic confinement affects the mass spectrum of quarkonium. In the strong-field regime, we find downward mass shifts induced by a softening of the confining potential along the field direction. In particular, the mass shifts of radially excited states are more significant than that of the ground state. For the longitudinal spin eigenstates, the excited-state spectrum strongly depends on the magnetic-field strength, in contrast to the spectrum with conventional isotropic confinement, which is insensitive to the field strength. This provides a clean probe of magnetically induced confinement anisotropy that can be confirmed in future lattice simulations.

We investigate the restoration patterns of chiral and $U(1)$ axial symmetries at finite temperature using a soft-wall holographic QCD model. The study employs two distinct parameter sets (Case I and Case II), both calibrated to reproduce a pseudocritical temperature $T_{\rm pc} \sim 155$ MeV and the physical pion mass. The temperature dependence of the light and strange quark condensates confirms a smooth chiral crossover transition, with pseudocritical temperatures of $T_{\rm pc}=0.157$ GeV and $T_{\rm pc}=0.154$ GeV for Cases I and II, respectively. The screening masses of chiral partner mesons ($\pi$-$\sigma$ and $\eta$-$a_0$) become degenerate near $T_{\rm pc}$, providing a clear signature of chiral symmetry restoration. Analysis of the corresponding meson susceptibilities further supports this conclusion. However, the indicator for $U(1)$ axial symmetry restoration, $\chi_\pi - \chi_{a_0}$, vanishes at a temperature $T \sim 0.190 $ GeV, which indicates a distinct restoration scale with chiral symmetry restoration scale within the present holographic framework. The temperature-dependent topological susceptibility $\chi_{\rm top}^{1/4}$ is also computed, showing a sharp drop near $T_{\rm pc}$ and a subsequent slight decrease. While the model qualitatively captures established features of the chiral transition, the results highlight a limitation in the qualitative description of the $U(1)$ axial anomaly compared to LQCD in our work.

We show that an out-of-equilibrium percolation transition occurs after quenching ferromagnetic Ising-like systems across their magnetic first-order transitions. As a paradigmatic example, we consider a two-dimensional Ising system driven across its low-temperature first-order transition line by a quench of the magnetic field $h$ from $h_i<0$ to $h>0$. In the thermodynamic limit and for finite values of $h$, the post-quench evolution under a purely relaxational dynamics is characterized by a dynamic transition at a finite critical time $t_c(h)$ from the metastable negatively magnetized phase to the positive one, marked by the percolation of the largest clusters of positive and negative spins. This out-of-equilibrium percolation transition displays a finite-size scaling behavior as in the standard random-percolation case. However, while the fractal dimension of the percolating clusters is consistent with the random-percolation value, the exponent controlling the approach to criticality differs and depends on $h$. We also show that the percolation critical behavior is related to the spinodal-like behavior of the magnetization in the small-$h$ limit, which implies that the percolation time $t_c(h)$ exhibits a spinodal-like exponential dependence on $h$.

We investigate the quantum properties of the truly gauge-invariant and conserved charges of two-dimensional Yang-Mills theories, focusing on lattice QCD in the strong coupling regime. The construction of those charges uses the integral version of the (1+1)-dimensional Yang-Mills equations, and they correspond to the eigenvalues of a charge operator. The gauge invariance of the charges suggests that they are not confined, hence hadronic states may carry them. Using the path integral formalism with imaginary time (Euclidean), we evaluate the correlation functions of those charges on baryon and meson states through functional integrals over the gauge group SU(N) (N=2,3) and Grassmannian variables - the fermionic fields. Our results show that the expectation values of the lowest non-trivial charges are nonzero for baryon and meson states but vanish for non-gauge-invariant states, supporting the interpretation that hadrons indeed carry these charges. While renormalization effects and higher-order contributions remain to be analyzed, these findings point toward a potential link between gauge-invariant charges and confinement.

The two-dimensional O(3) nonlinear sigma model is a well known toy model for studying non-perturbative phenomena in quantum field theory. A central challenge is the renormalization of the energy-momentum tensor, which is complicated by the nonlinear realization of the $O(3)$ symmetry leading to non-trivial operator mixing patterns, and by large discretization artifacts affecting the determination of renormalization constants. We present results for the renormalization constants in the non-singlet sector, employing a modified lattice action with shifted boundary conditions and defining the renormalized coupling through the gradient flow. While we obtain a precise determination of the relative mixing constant $z_T$, the overall normalization $Z_T$ remains inaccessible due to large discretization artifacts. We discuss the origins of these difficulties and outline possible paths forward.

We study the nonleptonic decays of $\Omega_{b}\rightarrow\Omega_{c} P (V)$ with eight pseudoscalar and vector mesons using the naive factorization approach. We analyze all relevant topologies (the tree-level, color-suppressed, and penguin) of these decays and calculate the decay amplitude for each separately. We determine the decay rates, branching ratios and compare our results with those from other theoretical predictions. The results obtained may be useful for the analysis of the related data in both ongoing and future experiments.