Doubly-heavy baryons, tetraquarks, and related topics

Abstract

We review the physics of doubly-heavy baryons $QQq$ and tetraquarks $QQ\bar q\bar q$. For the latter, the stability is reached for large enough mass ratio $M/m$, even when spin forces and color mixing are neglected. It is thus customarily claimed that $bb\bar q\bar q$ in its ground state cannot decay into $b\bar q+b\bar q$. In some model, $cc\bar u\bar d$ is shown to be stable if color mixing and spin effects are properly taken into account. It is conjectured that some $bc\bar q\bar q'$ benefits from favorable adjustments of the gluon tubes in the confinement regime. Some recent studies of pentaquarks and hexaquarks are also summarized.