The hidden-charm pentaquark and tetraquark states

In the past decade many charmonium-like states were observed experimentally. Especially those charged charmonium-like $Z_c$ states and bottomonium-like $Z_b$ states can not be accommodated within the naive quark model. These charged $Z_c$ states are good candidates of either the hidden-charm tetraquark states or molecules composed of a pair of charmed mesons. Recently, the LHCb Collaboration discovered two hidden-charm pentaquark states, which are also beyond the quark model. In this work, we review the current experimental progress and investigate various theoretical interpretations of these candidates of the multiquark states. We list the puzzles and theoretical challenges of these models when confronted with the experimental data. We also discuss possible future measurements which may distinguish the theoretical schemes on the underlying structures of the hidden-charm multiquark states.Comment: Review accepted by Physics Reports, 152 pages, 66 figures, and 29 table

The Y(2175) State in the QCD Sum Rule

We study the mass of the state Y(2175) of J^{PC} = 1^{--} in the QCD sum rule. We construct both the diquark-antidiquark currents (ss)(s_bar s_bar) and the meson-meson currents (s_bar s)(s_bar s). We find that there are two independent currents for both cases, and derive the relations between them. The OPE convergence of these two currents is sufficiently fast, which enables us to perform good sum rule analysis. Both the SVZ sum rule and the finite energy sum rule lead to a mass around 2.3+-0.4 GeV, which is consistent with the observed mass within the uncertainties of the present QCD sum rule. The coupling of the four-quark currents to lower lying states such as \phi(1020) turns out to be rather small. We also discuss possible decay properties of Y(2175) if it is a tetraquark state.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, revised version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Establishing low-lying doubly charmed baryons

We systematically study the $S$-wave doubly charmed baryons using the method of QCD sum rules. Our results suggest that the $\Xi_{cc}^{++}$ recently observed by LHCb can be well identified as the $S$-wave $\Xi_{cc}$ state of $J^P = 1/2^+$. We study its relevant $\Omega_{cc}$ state, whose mass is predicted to be around 3.7 GeV. We also systematically study the $P$-wave doubly charmed baryons, whose masses are predicted to be around 4.1 GeV. Especially, there can be several excited doubly charmed baryons in this energy region, and we suggest to search for them in order to study the fine structure of the strong interaction.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, 1 table; A mistake was found when evaluating decay constants of the S-wave charmed baryons. The conclusion is not change

Doubly hidden-charm/bottom QQQˉQˉQQ\bar Q\bar Q tetraquark states

We study the mass spectra for the $cc\bar c\bar c$ and $bb\bar b\bar b$ tetraquark states by developing a moment sum rule method. Our results show that the $bb\bar b\bar b$ tetraquarks lie below the threshold of $\eta_b(1S)\eta_b(1S)$. They are probably stable and very narrow. The masses for the doubly hidden-charm states $cc\bar c\bar c$ are higher than the spontaneous dissociation thresholds of two charmonium mesons. We suggest to search for such states in the $J/\psi J/\psi$ and $\eta_c(1S)\eta_c(1S)$ channels.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. More references added. Conference proceedings for 6th International Conference on New Frontiers in Physics (ICNFP 2017), Crete, Greece, 17-29 Aug, 201

Open-flavor charmed/bottom sqqˉQˉsq\bar q\bar Q and qqqˉQˉqq\bar q\bar Q tetraquark states

We provide comprehensive investigations for the mass spectrum of exotic open-flavor charmed/bottom $sq\bar q\bar c$, $qq\bar q\bar c$, $sq\bar q\bar b$, $qq\bar q\bar b$ tetraquark states with various spin-parity assignments $J^P=0^+, 1^+, 2^+$ and $0^-, 1^-$ in the framework of QCD sum rules. In the diquark configuration, we construct the diquark-antidiquark interpolating tetraquark currents using the color-antisymmetric scalar and axial-vector diquark fields. The stable mass sum rules are established in reasonable parameter working ranges, which are used to give reliable mass predictions for these tetraquark states. We obtain the mass spectra for the open-flavor charmed/bottom $sq\bar q\bar c$, $qq\bar q\bar c$, $sq\bar q\bar b$, $qq\bar q\bar b$ tetraquark states with various spin-parity quantum numbers. In addition, we suggest searching for exotic doubly-charged tetraquarks, such as $[sd][\bar u\bar c]\to D_s^{(\ast)-}\pi^-$ in future experiments at facilities such as BESIII, BelleII, PANDA, LHCb and CMS, etc.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, 5 tables, accepted by Phys. Rev. D (in press

Residues Responsible for the Selectivity of α-Conotoxins for Ac-AChBP or nAChRs

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are targets for developing new drugs to treat severe pain, nicotine addiction, Alzheimer disease, epilepsy, etc. α-Conotoxins are biologically and chemically diverse. With 12–19 residues and two disulfides, they can be specifically selected for different nAChRs. Acetylcholine-binding proteins from Aplysia californica (Ac-AChBP) are homologous to the ligand-binding domains of nAChRs and pharmacologically similar. X-ray structures of the α-conotoxin in complex with Ac-AChBP in addition to computer modeling have helped to determine the binding site of the important residues of α-conotoxin and its affinity for nAChR subtypes. Here, we present the various α-conotoxin residues that are selective for Ac-AChBP or nAChRs by comparing the structures of α-conotoxins in complex with Ac-AChBP and by modeling α-conotoxins in complex with nAChRs. The knowledge of these binding sites will assist in the discovery and design of more potent and selective α-conotoxins as drug leads

F-wave heavy-light meson spectroscopy in QCD sum rules and heavy quark effective theory

We study the F-wave c_bar s heavy meson doublets (2+,3+) and (3+,4+). They have large orbital excitations L=3, and may be good challenges (tests) for theoretical studies. To study them we use the method of QCD sum rule in the framework of heavy quark effective theory. Their masses are predicted to be m_{(2+,3+)} = (3.45 \pm 0.25, 3.50 \pm 0.26) GeV and m_{(3+,4+)} = (3.20 \pm 0.22, 3.26 \pm 0.23) GeV, with mass splittings Delta m_{(2+,3+)} = m_{3+} - m_{2+} = 0.046 \pm 0.030 GeV and Delta m_{(3+,4+)} = 0.053 \pm 0.044 GeV, respectively. We note that this is a pioneering work and these results are provisional.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables, accepted by PR

Hunting for exotic doubly hidden-charm/bottom tetraquark states

We develop a moment QCD sum rule method augmented by fundamental inequalities to study the existence of exotic doubly hidden-charm/bottom tetraquark states made of four heavy quarks. Using the compact diquark-antidiquark configuration, we calculate the mass spectra of these tetraquark states. There are 18 hidden-charm $cc\bar c\bar c$ tetraquark currents with $J^{PC} = 0^{++}$, $0^{-+}$, $0^{--}$, $1^{++}$, $1^{+-}$, $1^{-+}$, $1^{--}$, and $2^{++}$. We use them to perform QCD sum rule analyses, and the obtained masses are all higher than the spontaneous dissociation thresholds of two charmonium mesons, which are thus their dominant decay modes. The masses of the corresponding hidden-bottom $bb\bar b\bar b$ tetraquarks are all below or very close to the thresholds of the $\Upsilon(1S)\Upsilon(1S)$ and $\eta_b(1S)\eta_b(1S)$, except one current of $J^{PC}=0^{++}$. Hence, we suggest to search for the doubly hidden-charm states in the $J/\psi J/\psi$ and $\eta_c(1S)\eta_c(1S)$ channels.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures and 2 tables. published in PL