Search for Θ+ in KLp→K+n reaction in KLF at JLab

Abstract

The possibility of the existence of multiquark hadrons made of 4-quarks for mesons and 5-quarks for baryons was predicted by Gell-Mann [Phys. Lett. 8, 214 (1964)]. The renewed interest for the search for exotic pentaquark states was initiated by the paper by Diakonov, Petrov, and Polyakov [Z. Phys. A 359, 305 (1997)]. The 2003 experimental reports on the observation of [Formula: see text] pentaquark with [Formula: see text] quark content created a great excitement and many following experiments have reported its observation [K. H. Hicks, Eur. Phys. J. H 37, 1 (2012)]. After high-statistics experiments at JLab, which did not confirm previous claims by the CLAS collaboration, the community concluded that the [Formula: see text] pentaquark either does not exist at all or has an extremely small cross-section, making it currently unobserved. There were different review papers on this subject, questioning the existence of [Formula: see text] or trying to explain the reasons why reaching a conclusion based on production experiments is challenging [M. Amaryan, Eur. Phys. J. Plus 137, 684 (2022)]. To address the challenge of minimal 3-body final states, a formation experiment with a projectile-kaon beam is proposed. In the following, we discuss how the [Formula: see text] could be observed in the [Formula: see text] reaction in the KLF experiment at JLab [M. Amaryan et al. [KLF Collaboration], arXiv:2008.08215 [nucl-ex]].