Impact of clustering inside compact tetraquarks

Abstract

Due to the reducibility of tetraquark operators into mesonic clusters, a strong interplay exists in tetraquarks between compact and molecular structures. This issue is studied within an effective field theory approach, where the compact tetraquark is treated as an elementary particle. Under the influence of the coupling to the mesonic clusters, an initially formed compact tetraquark bound state is deformed towards a new structure of the molecular type, having the attributes of a shallow bound state.