A large number of experimental discoveries especially in the heavy quarkonium sector that did not meet the expectations of the until then very successful quark model led to a renaissance of hadron spectroscopy. Among various explanations of the internal structure of these excitations, hadronic molecules, being analogs of light nuclei, play a unique role since for those predictions can be made with controlled uncertainty. Experimental evidence of various candidates of hadronic molecules and methods of identifying such structures are reviewed. Nonrelativistic effective field theories are the suitable framework for studying hadronic molecules and are discussed in both the continuum and finite volumes. Also pertinent lattice QCD results are presented. Further, the production mechanisms and decays of hadronic molecules are discussed and comments are given on the reliability of certain assertions often made in the literature.

There has recently been a dramatic renewal of interest in hadron spectroscopy and charm physics. This renaissance has been driven in part by the discovery of a plethora of charmonium-like XYZ states at BESIII and B factories, and the observation of an intriguing proton-antiproton threshold enhancement and the possibly related X(1835) meson state at BESIII, as well as the threshold measurements of charm mesons and charm baryons. We present a detailed survey of the important topics in tau-charm physics and hadron physics that can be further explored at BESIII during the remaining operation period of BEPCII. This survey will help in the optimization of the data-taking plan over the coming years, and provides physics motivation for the possible upgrade of BEPCII to higher luminosity.

Lepton scattering is an established ideal tool for studying inner structure of small particles such as nucleons as well as nuclei. As a future high energy nuclear physics project, an Electron-ion collider in China (EicC) has been proposed. It will be constructed based on an upgraded heavy-ion accelerator, High Intensity heavy-ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) which is currently under construction, together with a new electron ring. The proposed collider will provide highly polarized electrons (with a polarization of ∼80%) and protons (with a polarization of ∼70%) with variable center of mass energies from 15 to 20 GeV and the luminosity of (2–3) × 10³³ cm⁻² · s⁻¹. Polarized deuterons and Helium-3, as well as unpolarized ion beams from Carbon to Uranium, will be also available at the EicC.The main foci of the EicC will be precision measurements of the structure of the nucleon in the sea quark region, including 3D tomography of nucleon; the partonic structure of nuclei and the parton interaction with the nuclear environment; the exotic states, especially those with heavy flavor quark contents. In addition, issues fundamental to understanding the origin of mass could be addressed by measurements of heavy quarkonia near-threshold production at the EicC. In order to achieve the above-mentioned physics goals, a hermetical detector system will be constructed with cutting-edge technologies.This document is the result of collective contributions and valuable inputs from experts across the globe. The EicC physics program complements the ongoing scientific programs at the Jefferson Laboratory and the future EIC project in the United States. The success of this project will also advance both nuclear and particle physics as well as accelerator and detector technology in China.

The spectrum of hadronic molecules composed of heavy–antiheavy charmed hadrons has been obtained in our previous work. The potentials are constants at the leading order, which are estimated from resonance saturation. The experimental candidates of hadronic molecules, say X (3872), Y (4260), three P _c states and P _cs (4459), fit the spectrum well. The success in describing the pattern of heavy–antiheavy hadronic molecules stimulates us to give more predictions for the heavy–heavy cases, which are less discussed in literature than the heavy–antiheavy ones. Given that the heavy–antiheavy hadronic molecules, several of which have strong experimental evidence, emerge from the dominant constant interaction from resonance saturation, we find that the existence of many heavy–heavy hadronic molecules is natural. Among these predicted heavy–heavy states we highlight the DD ^* molecule and the D ( * ) Σ c ( * ) molecules, which are the partners of the famous X (3872) and P _c states. Quite recently, LHCb collaboration reported a doubly charmed tetraquark state, T _cc , which is in line with our results for the DD ^* molecule. With the first experimental signal of this new kind of exotic states, the upcoming update of the LHCb experiment as well as other experiments will provide more chances of observing the heavy–heavy hadronic molecules.