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Title: Identifying Multiquark Hadrons from Heavy Ion Collisions

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
 [1]; ;  [2];  [3]; ;  [2];  [4];  [1];  [5];  [2];  [6]
  1. Institute of Physics and Applied Physics, Yonsei University, Seoul 120-749 (Korea, Republic of)
  2. Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502 (Japan)
  3. Department of Physics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro 152-8551 (Japan)
  4. Cyclotron Institute and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas A and M University, College Station, Texas 77843 (United States)
  5. Instituto de Fisica, Universidade de Sao Paulo, C.P. 66318, 05389-970 Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil)
  6. Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), 1-1, Oho, Ibaraki 305-0801 (Japan)

Identifying hadronic molecular states and/or hadrons with multiquark components either with or without exotic quantum numbers is a long-standing challenge in hadronic physics. We suggest that studying the production of these hadrons in relativistic heavy ion collisions offers a promising resolution to this problem as yields of exotic hadrons are expected to be strongly affected by their structures. Using the coalescence model for hadron production, we find that, compared to the case of a nonexotic hadron with normal quark numbers, the yield of an exotic hadron is typically an order of magnitude smaller when it is a compact multiquark state and a factor of 2 or more larger when it is a loosely bound hadronic molecule. We further find that some of the newly proposed heavy exotic states could be produced and realistically measured in these experiments.

OSTI ID:
21538368
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 21; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.212001; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0031-9007
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English