Observation of an excess of di-charmonium events in the four-muon final state with the ATLAS detector

Abstract

A search is made for potential $cc\bar{c}\bar{c}$ tetraquarks decaying into a pair of charmonium states in the four muon final state using proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$ recorded by the ATLAS experiment at LHC. Two decay channels, $J/\psi+J/\psi \rightarrow 4\mu$ and $J/\psi+\psi(2S) \rightarrow 4\mu$, are studied. Backgrounds are estimated based on a hybrid approach involving Monte Carlo simulations and data-driven methods. Statistically significant excesses with respect to backgrounds dominated by the single parton scattering are seen in the di-$J/\psi$ channel consistent with a narrow resonance at 6.9 GeV and a broader structure at lower mass. A statistically significant excess is also seen in the $J/\psi$+$\psi$(2S) channel. The fitted masses and decay widths of the structures are reported.