pentaquarkët

A pentaquark is a hypothetical subatomic particle composed of five quarks. Quarks are fundamental constituents of matter, and normally they are found in combinations of two (mesons) or three (baryons). The concept of a pentaquark arises from extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics and is an example of an exotic hadron. If they exist, pentaquarks would be a new class of baryonic states.

The theoretical prediction of pentaquarks emerged in the late 1960s, but experimental evidence has been elusive and debated. Several experiments have reported potential pentaquark signals over the years, but these have often lacked strong statistical significance or have been contradicted by subsequent observations. The most prominent candidate signals have come from experiments like the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) and later from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The structure of a pentaquark is generally thought to consist of four quarks and one antiquark, or alternatively, three quarks and a pair of quark-antiquark. These configurations would still satisfy the rules for forming baryons, which are particles made of three quarks or three antiquarks. The study of pentaquarks is important for understanding the strong nuclear force, which binds quarks together, and for exploring the full spectrum of possible hadronic states. Confirmation of their existence would significantly advance our understanding of quantum chromodynamics, the theory describing the strong interaction.