XYZ Mesons Research Articles

The XYZ mesons: what they aren’t

I discuss the properties of some representative XYZ mesons in the context of the most commonly proposed models for their underlying nature.

Effective field theory investigations of the XYZ puzzle

Quantum Chromodynamics, the theory of strong interactions, predicts several types of bound states. Among them are conventional mesons (qq̅) and baryons (qqq), which have been the only states observed in experiments for years. However, in the last decade, many states that do not fit this picture have been observed at B-factories (BaBar, Belle and CLEO), at τ-charm facilities (CLEO-c, BESIII) and also at proton-proton colliders (CDF, D0, LHCb, ATLAS, CMS). There is growing evidence that at least some of the new charmonium- and bottomonium-like states, the so-called XYZ mesons, are new forms of matter such as quark-gluon hybrids, mesonic molecules or different arrangements of tetraquarks, pentaquarks... Effective Field Theories (EFTs) have been constructed for heavy-quark-antiquark bound states, but a general study of the XYZ mesons within the same framework has not yet been done. The scope of this conference proceedings is to discuss the possibilities we have in developing novel EFTs that, characterizing the conventional quarkonium states, facilitate also the systematic and model-independent description of the new exotic matter, in particular, the hybrid mesons.

Towards a Theoretical Understanding of theXYZMesons from QCD

The XYZ mesons are mesons that contain a heavy quark and antiquark but have properties that seem to require additional constituents. Some of them are electrically charged, so they must be tetraquark mesons whose additional constituents are a light quark and antiquark. The list of XYZ mesons has grown to about two dozen over the last decade. A promising approach to understanding these mesons within QCD is the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, which reduces the problem to the solution of the Schrodinger equation in potentials that can be calculated using lattice QCD. The Born-Oppenheimer approximation has not yet revealed the pattern of the XYZ mesons, but it provides a compelling framework for understanding them from the fundamental theory.

A new hadron spectroscopy

QCD-motivated models for hadrons predict an assortment of "exotic" hadrons that have structures that are more complex than the quark-antiquark mesons and three-quark baryons of the original quark-parton model. These include pentaquark baryons, the six-quark H-dibaryon, and tetraquark, hybrid and glueball mesons. Despite extensive experimental searches, no unambiguous candidates for any of these exotic configurations have been identified. On the other hand, a number of meson states, one that seems to be a proton-antiproton bound state, and others that contain either charmed-anticharmed quark pairs or bottom-antibottom quark pairs, have been recently discovered that neither fit into the quark-antiquark meson picture nor match the expected properties of the QCD-inspired exotics. Here I briefly review results from a recent search for the H-dibaryon, and discuss some properties of the newly discovered states --the proton-antiproton state and the so-called XYZ mesons-- and compare them with expectations for conventional quark-antiquark mesons and the predicted QCD-exotic states.

QCD exotics

QCD-motivated models for hadrons predict an assortment of "exotic" hadrons that have structures that are more complex then the quark-antiquark mesons and three-quark baryons of the original quark-parton model. These include pentaquark baryons, the six-quark H-dibaryon, and tetra-quark, hybrid, and glueball mesons. Despite extensive experimental searches, no unambiguous candidates for any of these exotic configurations have yet to be identified. On the other hand, a number of meson states, one that seems to be a proton-antiproton bound state, and others that contain either charmed-anticharmed quark pairs or bottom-antibottom quark pairs, have been recently discovered that neither fit into the quark-antiquark meson picture nor match the expected properties of the QCD-inspired exotics. Here I briefly review results from a recent search for the H-dibaryon, and discuss some properties of the newly discovered states --the so-called XYZ mesons-- and compare them with expectations for conventional quark-antiquark mesons and the predicted QCD-exotic states.

Unraveling the pattern of the XYZ mesons

We present a plausible mechanism for the origin of the XYZ mesons in the heavy meson spectra within a standard quark-model picture. We discuss the conditions required for the existence of four-quark bound states or resonances contributing to the heavy meson spectra, being either compact or molecular. We concentrate on charmonium and bottomonium spectra, where several new states, difficult to understand as simple quark–antiquark pairs, have been reported by different experimental collaborations. The pivotal role played by entangled meson–meson thresholds is emphasized.

Born-Oppenheimer approximation for theXYZmesons

Many of the XYZ mesons discovered in the last decade can be identified as bound states in Born-Oppenheimer (B-O) potentials for a heavy quark and antiquark. They include quarkonium hybrids, which are bound states in excited flavor-singlet B-O potentials, and quarkonium tetraquarks, which are bound states in flavor-nonsinglet B-O potentials. We present simple parameterizations of the deepest flavor-singlet B-O potentials. We infer the deepest flavor-nonsinglet B-O potentials from lattice QCD calculations of static adjoint mesons. Selection rules for hadronic transitions are used to identify XYZ mesons that are candidates for ground-state energy levels in the B-O potentials for charmonium hybrids and tetraquarks. The energies of the lowest-energy charmonium hybrids are predicted by using the results of lattice QCD calculations to calculate the energy splittings between the ground states of different B-O potentials and using the Schroedinger equation to determine the splittings between energy levels within a B-O potential.

Selection Rules for Hadronic Transitions ofXYZMesons

Many of the XYZ mesons discovered in the last decade can be identified as bound states of a heavy quark and antiquark in Born-Oppenheimer (BO) potentials defined by the energy of gluon and light-quark fields in the presence of static color sources. The mesons include quarkonium hybrids, which are bound states in excited flavor-singlet BO potentials, and quarkonium tetraquarks, which are bound states in BO potentials with light-quark+antiquark flavor. The deepest hybrid potentials are known from lattice QCD calculations. The deepest tetraquark potentials can be inferred from lattice QCD calculations of static adjoint mesons. Selection rules for hadronic transitions are derived and used to identify XYZ mesons that are candidates for ground-state energy levels in the BO potentials for charmonium hybrids and tetraquarks.

New hadron spectroscopies

QCD-motivated models for hadrons predict an assortment of "exotic" hadrons that have structures that are more complex than the quark-antiquark mesons and three-quark baryons of the original quark-parton model. These include pentaquark baryons, the six-quark H-dibaryon, and tetraquark and glueball mesons. Despite extensive experimental searches, no unambiguous candidates for any of these exotic configurations have yet to be identified. On the other hand, a number of meson states, one that seems to be a proton-antiproton bound state, and others that contain either charmed-anticharmed quark pairs or bottom-antibottom quark pairs, have been recently discovered that neither fit into the quark-antiquark meson picture nor match the expected properties of the QCD-inspired exotics. Here I briefly review results from a recent search for the H-dibaryon, and discuss some properties of the newly discovered states –the so-called XYZ mesons– and compare them with expectations for conventional quark-antiquark mesons and the predicted QCD-exotic states.

CONSTITUENT QUARK MODEL DESCRIPTION OF CHARMONIUM PHENOMENOLOGY

We review how quark models are able to describe the phenomenology of the charm meson sector. The spectroscopy and decays of charmonium and open charm mesons are described in a particular quark model and compared with the data and the results of other existing models in the literature. A quite reasonable global description of the heavy meson spectra is reached. A new assignment of the ψ(4415) resonance as a 3D state leaving aside the 4S state to the X(4360) is tested through the analysis of the resonance structure in e+e- exclusive reactions around the ψ(4415) energy region. We make tentative assignments of some of the XYZ mesons. To elucidate the structure of the 1+cs states, i.e., Ds1(2460) and Ds1(2536), we study the strong decay properties of the Ds1(2536) meson. We also perform a calculation of the branching fractions for the semileptonic decays of B and Bs mesons into final states containing orbitally excited charmed and charmed-strange mesons, which have become a very important source of information about the structure of heavy mesons. Analysis of the nonleptonic B-meson decays into D(*)DsJ are also included.

Chapter 14 Charmonium Spectroscopy

The following sections are included: Introduction Conventional Charmonium States Issues for BES-III Novel States Incorporating a [Formula: see text] Subsystem The XYZ Mesons, Recent Experimental Developments

What's new with the XYZ mesons?**Talk given at the Belle-BES-CLEO-BaBar Joint Workshop on Charm Physics, Beijing, China November 26–27, 2007

I review some of the recent experimental results on the so-called XYZ mesons.