Hadronic spectral densities are important quantities whose non-perturbative knowledge allows for calculating phenomenologically relevant observables, such as inclusive hadronic cross-sections and non-leptonic decay-rates. The extraction of spectral densities from lattice correlators is a notoriously difficult problem because lattice simulations are performed in Euclidean time and lattice data are unavoidably affected by statistical and systematic uncertainties. In this paper we present a new method for extracting hadronic spectral densities from lattice correlators. The method allows for choosing a smearing function at the beginning of the procedure and it provides results for the spectral densities smeared with this function together with reliable estimates of the associated uncertainties. The same smearing function can be used in the analysis of correlators obtained on different volumes, such that the infinite volume limit can be studied in a consistent way. While the method is described by using the language of lattice simulations, in reality it is completely general and can profitably be used to cope with inverse problems arising in different fields of research.

The naturalness problem in the Higgs sector finds a popular solution in composite Higgs models. In such theories the Higgs boson emerges as the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson associated with the breaking of a global symmetry realised in a new, strongly interacting sector. We address a model arising in this context, a SU(4) gauge theory with fermions in two distinct representations. We present a novel lattice study of this theory, in which we address the non-perturbative reconstruction of spectral densities from lattice correlators.

We present a lattice study of the SU(4) gauge theory with two Dirac fermions in the fundamental and two in the two-index antisymmetric representation, a model close to a theory of partial compositeness proposed by G. Ferretti. Focus of this work are the methodologies behind the computation of the spectrum and the extrapolation of the chiral point for a theory with matter in multiple representations. While being still technical, this study provides important steps towards a non-perturbative understanding of the spectrum of theories of partial compositeness, which present a richer dynamics compared to single-representation theories. The multi-representation features are studied first in perturbation theory, and then non-perturbatively by adopting a dual outlook on lattice data through a joint analysis of time-momentum correlation functions and smeared spectral densities.