Discovery potential of stable and near-threshold doubly heavy tetraquarks at the LHC

Abstract

We study the LHC discovery potential of the double-bottom tetraquarks $bb \bar u \bar d$, $bb \bar u \bar s$ and $bb \bar d \bar s$, the lightest of which having $J^P=1^+$, called $T^{\{bb\}}_{[\bar u \bar d]}$, $T^{\{bb\}}_{[\bar u \bar s]}$ and $T^{\{bb\}}_{[\bar d \bar s]}$, are expected to be stable against strong decays. Employing the Monte Carlo generators MadGraph5$\_$aMC@NLO and Pythia6, we simulate the process $pp\to \bar b b\bar b b$ and calculate the $b b$-diquark jet configurations, specified by the invariant mass interval $m_{bb} < M_{T^{\{bb\}}_{[\bar q \bar q']}} + ΔM$. Estimates of $ΔM$ from the measured product $σ(pp \to B_c^+ +X){\cal B}(B_c^+\to J/ψπ^+)$ are presented and used to to get the $b b$-diquark jet cross sections in double-bottom hadrons $σ(pp \to H_{\{bb\}} +X)$, where $H_{\{bb\}} $ represent tetraquarks and baryons. This is combined with the LHCb data on the fragmentation $b \to Λ_b$ and $b \to B$ to obtain $σ(pp\to T^{\{bb\}}_{[\bar u\bar d]} +X) = (2.4 ^{+0.9}_{-0.6})\ \text{nb} $, and about a half of this for the $T^{\{bb\}}_{[\bar{u}\bar{s}]}$ and $T^{\{bb\}}_{[\bar d \bar s]}$. We also present estimates of the production cross sections for the mixed bottom-charm tetraquarks, $bc \bar u \bar d$, $bc \bar u \bar s$ and $bc \bar d \bar s$, obtaining $σ(pp\to T^{[bc]}_{[\bar u \bar d]} +X)= (48^{+19}_{-12})\ {\rm nb}$, and the related ones having $T^{[bc]}_{[\bar u \bar s]}$ and $T^{[bc]}_{[\bar d \bar s]}$. They have excellent discovery potential at the LHC, as their branching ratios in various charge combinations of $BD_{(s)} (γ)$ are anticipated to be large.

6 pages, 4 figures; v2: Revised to incorporate referee remarks, version accepted for publication in Physics Letters B