Carames, T. F., Fontoura, C. E., Krein, G., Vijande, J., & Valcarce, A. (2018). Charmed baryons in nuclear matter. Phys. Rev. D, 98(11), 114019–9pp.
Abstract: We study the temperature and baryon density dependence of the masses of the lightest charmed baryons Lambda(c), Sigma(c) and Sigma(c)*. We also look at the effects of the temperature and baryon density on the binding energies of the Lambda N-c and Lambda(c)Lambda(c) systems. Baryon masses and baryon-baryon interactions are evaluated within a chiral constituent quark model. Medium effects are incorporated in those parameters of the model related to the dynamical breaking of chiral symmetry, which are the masses of the constituent quarks, the sigma and pi meson masses, and quark-meson couplings. We find that while the in-medium Lambda(c) mass decreases monotonically with temperature, those of Sigma(c) and Sigma(c)* have a nonmonotonic dependence. These features can be understood in terms of a simple group theory analysis regarding the one-gluon exchange interaction in those hadrons. The in-medium Lambda N-c and Lambda(c)Lambda(c) interactions are governed by a delicate balance involving a stronger attraction due to the decrease of the sigma meson mass, suppression of coupled-channel effects and lower thresholds, leading to shallow bound states with binding energies of a few MeV. The Lambda(c) baryon could possibly be bound to a large nucleus, in qualitative agreement with results based on relativistic mean field models or QCD sum rules. Ongoing experiments at RHIC or LHCb or the planned ones at FAIR and J-PARC may take advantage of the present results.
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Carames, T. F., Vijande, J., & Valcarce, A. (2019). Exotic bc(q)over-bar(q)over-bar four-quark states. Phys. Rev. D, 99(1), 014006–9pp.
Abstract: We carry out a systematic study of exotic QQ'(q) over bar(q) over bar four-quark states containing distinguishable heavy flavors, b and c. Different generic constituent models are explored in an attempt to extract general conclusions. The results are robust, predicting the same sets of quantum numbers as the best candidates to lodge bound states independently of the model used, the isoscalar J(P) = 0(+) and J(P) = 1(+) states. The first state would be strong and electromagnetic-interaction stable, while the second would decay electromagnetically to (B) over barD gamma. Isovector states are found to be unbound, preventing the existence of charged partners. The interest on exotic heavy-light tetraquarks with nonidentical heavy flavors comes reinforced by the recent estimation of the production rate of the isoscalar bc (u) over bar(d) over bar J(P) = 1(+) state, 2 orders of magnitude larger than that of the bb (u) over bar(d) over bar analogous state.
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Fontoura, C. E., Krein, G., Valcarce, A., & Vijande, J. (2019). Production of exotic tetraquarks QQ(q)over-bar (q)over-bar in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC. Phys. Rev. D, 99(9), 094037–8pp.
Abstract: We investigate the production of exotic tetraquarks, QQ (q) over bar (q) over bar T-QQ (Q = c or b and q = u or d), in relativistic heavy-ion collisions using the quark coalescence model. The T-QQ yield is given by the overlap of the density matrix of the constituents in the emission source with the Wigner function of the produced tetraquark. The tetraquark wave function is obtained from exact solutions of the four-body problem using realistic constituent models. The production yields are typically one order of magnitude smaller than previous estimations based on simplified wave functions for the tetraquarks. We also evaluate the consequences of the partial restoration of chiral symmetry at the hadronization temperature on the coalescence probability. Such effects, in addition to increasing the stability of the tetraquarks, lead to an enhancement of the production yields, pointing towards an excellent discovery potential in forthcoming experiments. We discuss further consequences of our findings for the search of exotic tetraquarks in central Pb + Pb collisions at the LHC.
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Richard, J. M., Valcarce, A., & Vijande, J. (2020). Very Heavy Flavored Dibaryons. Phys. Rev. Lett., 124(21), 212001–4pp.
Abstract: We explore the possibility of very heavy dibaryons with three charm quarks and three beauty quarks, bbbccc, using a constituent model which should lead to the correct solution in the limit of hadrons made of heavy quarks. The six-body problem is treated rigorously, in particular taking into account the orbital, color, and spin mixed-symmetry components of the wave function. Unlike a recent claim based on lattice QCD, no bound state is found below the lowest dissociation threshold.
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Richard, J. M., Valcarce, A., & Vijande, J. (2021). Effect of relativistic kinematics on the stability of multiquarks. Phys. Rev. D, 103(5), 054020–8pp.
Abstract: We discuss whether the bound nature of multiquark states in quark models could benefit from relativistic effects on the kinetic energy operator. For mesons and baryons, relativistic corrections to the kinetic energy lead to lower energies, and thus call for a retuning of the parameters of the model. For multiquark states, as well as their respective thresholds, a comparison is made of the results obtained with nonrelativistic and relativistic kinetic energy. It is found that the binding energy is lower in the relativistic case. In particular, QQ (q) over bar(q) over bar tetraquarks with double heavy flavor become stable for a larger ratio of the heavy to light quark masses; the all-heavy tetraquarks QQ (Q) over bar(Q) over bar that are not stable in standard nonrelativistic quark models remain unstable when a relativistic form of kinetic energy is adopted.
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