Gauge theories are ubiquitous in fundamental physics with applications ranging from high-energy particle physics over emergent phenomena in condensed matter to quantum information science and technology. Since several regimes of interest have remained inaccessible to classical simulations, they constitute an ideal target for quantum simulations. In this talk, I wil present recent progress towards the quantum simulation of lattice gauge theories (LGTs). After highlighting key challenges that are unique to LGTs, I will review the current state-of-the-art, and discuss how to tackle outstanding open problems.

Inflation is the currently favoured explanation for the origin of the primordial density fluctuations that seeded all large-scale structures in the universe. It turns the birth of the universe into a “cosmological collider” event whose products are still imprinted in the sky today and can be detected with telescopes, provided we know what to look for. The precise connection  of inflation and particle physics is still pending, after decades, but now also its connection to quantum gravity is posing new and unexpected challenges.  After a general introduction, I will discuss some recent, surprising insights into inflation scenarios involving multiple fields with curved field space geometries (such as moduli).

Bell’s theorem proved the existence of quantum correlations with no classical analogue. After reviewing this fundamental result, we show how Bell non-local correlations are the crucial ingredient for device-independent quantum information applications. In this paradigm, devices are seen as uncharacterised quantum black boxes processing classical information and protocols are built without requiring any device modelling. This device-independent property guarantees that the protocol performance is self-certified and, in particular, provides the strongest form of quantum security.

The seminar gives an overview of recent results in the exploration of the Higgs sector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), aiming to deepen our
understanding of electroweak symmetry breaking and beyond-standard-model physics. We will look into searches for additional scalar particles both heavy and light. An exciting highlight is the search for Higgs boson pairs, including the brand new results on non-resonant HH production as well as searches for resonant Higgs pair production. The seminar concludes by looking ahead to Run 3 of the LHC and beyond. Together, these topics aim to showcase the status and potential of searches in the Higgs sector at the energy frontier.

In preparation for the 2026 European Strategy Update (ESU) for particle physics, the different projects for future colliders will present updated studies reflecting their physics potential. This will be crucial in deciding what will be the next big collider experiment in high energy physics. In this talk, after briefly describing the ESU process, I will present an overview of the studies that have been performed in the context of the "ECFA Study on Higgs/EW/Top factories" (https://ecfa.web.cern.ch/ecfa-study-higgs-ew-top-factories), whose final report is currently in preparation and will be submitted as one of the inputs to the 2026 ESU.

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The best-studied implementation of the holographic principle is the AdS/CFT correspondence. Does holography work beyond AdS/CFT, in particular, for asymptotically flat spacetimes? I review the Carrollian approach to answer this question affirmatively.

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