We report a state-of-the-art lattice QCD calculation of the total gluon helicity contribution to proton spin, $\Delta G$. The calculation is done on ensembles at three different lattice spacings $a=\{0.08, 0.09, 0.11\}$ fm. By employing distillation + momentum smearing for proton external states, we extract the bare matrix elements of the topological current $K^\mu$ under the 5-HYP smeared Coulomb gauge fixing configurations. Furthermore, we apply a non-perturbative $\mathrm{RI/MOM}$ renormalization scheme augmented with the Cluster Decomposition Error Reduction (CDER) technique to determine the renormalization constants of $K^\mu$. The results obtained from different components $K^{t,i}$ (with $i$ being the direction of proton momentum or polarization) are consistent with Lorentz covariance within uncertainties. After extrapolating to the continuum limit, $\Delta G$ is found to be $\Delta G = 0.231(17)^{\mathrm{sta.}}(33)^{\mathrm{sym.}}$ at the $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ scale ${\mu}^2=10\ \mathrm{GeV}^2$, which constitutes approximately $46(7)\%$ of the proton spin.

We describe in detail the implementation of the relativistic three-neutron finite-volume quantization condition derived in Ref. [1]. In particular, we show how the complications due to Wigner rotations acting on spins are included, and present concrete formulas for the case when the angular momenta within pairs is restricted to be less than 2. We describe the symmetries of the matrices appearing in the quantization condition, and decompose solutions into irreducible representations of the appropriate doubled finite-volume symmetry groups. We present an implementation of the three-particle K matrix, keeping the two lowest-order terms in the threshold expansion. We provide numerical predictions for the finite-volume spectrum for a setup with nearly physical parameters, including two-particle interactions that are based on experimental results. This exploratory study shows the how lattice QCD calculations of the three-neutron spectrum with sufficient precision can provide detailed information on both two- and three-particle interactions.

We explore the phase diagram of a lattice fermion model that exhibits three distinct phases: a massless fermion (MF) phase; a massive fermion phase with spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) induced by a fermion bilinear condensate; and a massive fermion phase with symmetric mass generation (SMG). Using the fermion-bag Monte Carlo method on large cubical lattices, we find evidence for traditional second-order critical points separating the first two and the latter two phases. Remarkably, these critical points appear to merge at a multicritical point with enhanced symmetry when the symmetry breaking parameter is tuned to zero, giving rise to the recently discovered direct second-order transition between the massless and symmetric massive fermion phases.

Recent advances in quantum simulations have opened access to the real-time dynamics of lattice gauge theories, providing a new setting to explore how quantum criticality influences thermalization and ergodicity far from equilibrium. Using QuEra's programmable Rydberg atom array, we map out the dynamical phase diagram of the spin-1/2 U(1) quantum link model in one spatial dimension by quenching the fermion mass. We reveal a tunable regime of ergodicity breaking due to quantum many-body scars, manifested as long-lived coherent oscillations that persist across a much broader range of parameters than previously observed, including at the equilibrium phase transition point. We further analyze the electron-positron pairs generated during state preparation via the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, which strongly affect the post-quench dynamics. Our results provide new insights into nonthermal dynamics in lattice gauge theories and establish Rydberg atom arrays as a powerful platform for probing the interplay between ergodicity breaking and quantum criticality.

Clarifying the origin of hadron mass is one of the fundamental problems in particle physics, relevant from hadronic scales to astrophysical observations. At low energies, this issue is reflected in the decomposition of the hadron mass into chiral-variant and -invariant components. In this letter, we propose a method to extract the chiral invariant mass from the gravitational $D$-form factor under the assumption of the lightest-sigma meson dominance. Focusing on the nucleon, we show that a sizable chiral invariant mass is required to reproduce lattice QCD data, consistent with neutron star constraints.

With the advent of quantum simulation experiments of lattice gauge theories (LGTs), an open question is the effect of non-Hermiticity on their rich physics. The well-known PXP model, a U$(1)$ LGT with a two-level electric field in one spatial dimension, has become a paradigm of exotic physics in and out of equilibrium. Here, we introduce a non-Hermitian version in which the spin-flip rate differs between the two spin directions. While the naive expectation is that non-Hermiticity might suppress coherent phenomena such as quantum many-body scars, we find that when the facilitating direction of the spin is disfavored, the oscillations are instead \emph{enhanced}, decaying much slower than in the PXP limit. We demonstrate that this can be understood through a similarity transformation that maps our model to the standard PXP model, revealing that the oscillations are enhanced versions of the PXP scars. Our work provides an analytically tractable and conceptually simple example where non-Hermiticity enhances the stability of dynamically non-trivial coherent many-body modes.

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.

By fitting the two-point correlation functions of topological charge density operators calculated on two $2+1$-flavor gauge ensembles with physical pion mass, we determine both the $\eta$ and $\eta'$ masses and also the mixing angle to be $m_\eta = 0.505(72)(75)$ GeV, $m_{\eta'}=0.952(47)(40)$ GeV, and $\theta_1 = -8.9(2.1)(1.8)^\circ$, respectively, where the first error is the statistical uncertainty and the second one is the systematic uncertainty. This is the first extraction of both $\eta/\eta'$ masses and the mixing angle $\theta_1$ using topological charge operators. Compared with previous studies using quark bilinear operators, the error of the $\eta$ mass is relatively large, but the mixing angle has comparable precision. This demonstrates that the topological charge operators are well suited to study the $\eta$ and $\eta'$ mesons.

We investigate the structural modifications of heavy quarkonia in the presence of strong magnetic fields using a constituent quark model. By incorporating the effects of spin mixing and quark Landau levels, we employ a nonrelativistic Hamiltonian that captures the essential features of quark dynamics in a magnetic field. The two-body Schrödinger equation is solved using the cylindrical Gaussian expansion method, which respects the cylindrical symmetry induced by a magnetic field. We extract the corresponding light-front wave function (LFWF) densities and analyze their transverse and longitudinal structures, revealing characteristic features such as transverse momentum broadening. While the longitudinal structure is only slightly modified within the nonrelativistic Hamiltonian, we discuss some corrections that can significantly affect its longitudinal structure. Furthermore, we discuss the structure modifications of excited states and find notable changes in the LFWF densities, and state reshuffling near avoided crossings. These results demonstrate the sensitivity of hadron structure to external magnetic fields and help bridge our understanding to relativistic approaches.

As a key property of hadrons, the total width is quite difficult to obtain in theory due to the extreme complexity of the strong and electroweak interactions. In this work, a deep neural network model with the Transformer architecture is built to precisely predict meson widths in the range of $10^{-14} \sim 625$ MeV based on meson quantum numbers and masses. The relative errors of the predictions are $0.12\%, 2.0\%,$ and $0.54\%$ in the training set, the test set, and all the data, respectively. We present the predicted meson width spectra for the currently discovered states and some theoretically predicted ones. The model is also used as a probe to study the quantum numbers and inner structures for some undetermined states including the exotic states. Notably, this data-driven model is investigated to spontaneously exhibit good charge conjugation symmetry and approximate isospin symmetry consistent with physical principles. The results indicate that the deep neural network can serve as an independent complementary research paradigm to describe and explore the hadron structures and the complicated interactions in particle physics alongside the traditional experimental measurements, theoretical calculations, and lattice simulations.