Abstract: We discuss the stability of tetraquark systems with two different masses. After some reminders about the stability of very asymmetric QQ (q) over bar(q) over bar tetraquarks, we demonstrate that in the all-heavy limit q -> Q, the system becomes unstable for standard color-additive models. We also analyze the consequences of symmetry breaking for Qq (Q) over bar(q) over bar configurations: we find a kind of metastability between the lowest threshold Q (Q) over bar + q (q) over bar and the highest one, Q (q) over bar + (Q) over barq, and we calculate the width of the resonance. Our results are consistent with the experimental observation of narrow hadrons lying well above their lowest decay threshold.

Abstract: We deal with the presence of magnetic monopoles in a non-Abelian model that generalizes the standard 't Hooft-Polyakov model in three spatial dimensions. We investigate the energy density of the static and spherically symmetric solutions to find first order differential equations that solve the equations of motion. The system is further studied and two distinct classes of solutions are obtained, one that can also be described by analytical solutions and is called a small monopole, since it is significantly smaller than the standard 't Hooft-Polyakov monopole. The other type of structure is the hollow monopole, since the energy density is endowed with a hole at its core. The hollow monopole can be smaller or larger than the standard monopole, depending on the value of the parameter that controls the magnetic permeability of the model.

Abstract: It is well known that certain special classes of self-gravitating point-like defects, such as global (non gauged) monopoles, give rise to non-asymptotically flat space-times characterized by solid angle deficits, whose size depends on the details of the underlying microscopic models. The scattering of electrically neutral particles on such space-times is described by amplitudes that exhibit resonant behaviour when thescattering and deficit angles coincide. This, in turn, leads to ring-like structures where the cross sections are formally divergent (“singular lensing”). In this work, we revisit this particular phenomenon, with the twofold purpose of placing it in a contemporary and more general context, in view of renewed interest in the theory and general phenomenology of such defects, and, more importantly, of addressing certain subtleties that appear in the particular computation that leads to the aforementioned effect. In particular, by adopting a specific regularization procedure for the formally infinite Legendre series encountered, we manage to ensure the recovery of theMinkowski space-time, and thus the disappearance of the lensing phenomenon, in the nodefect limit, and the validity of the optical theorem for the elastic total cross section. In addition, the singular nature of the phenomenon is confirmed by means of an alternative calculation, which, unlike the original approach, makes no use of the generating function of the Legendre polynomials, but rather exploits the asymptotic properties of the Fresnel integrals.