Heavy multiquark systems as clusters of smaller units -- a diffusion Monte Carlo calculation --

Abstract

Multiquark systems appear less frequently than mesons and baryons despite the enormous world-wide experimental effort that has been made during the last two decades. In this work, we will propose a possible explanation for that fact, restricting ourselves to the case of sets including only $c$ and $\bar{c}$ quarks. We will show that those multiquarks can be thought as different combinations of smaller units that associate together to produce colorless assemblies with a definite value of the total spin. For instance, for the $cccccc$ hexaquark with $S=0$, we have three possibilities: a set of six undistinguishable $c$ quarks, an association of two $ccc$ baryons, or a set of three $cc$ diquarks close together. This means we can have three different values for the mass of an open-charm hexaquark with $S=0$. Using the diffusion Monte Carlo method, we calculate all possible combinations compatible with tetraquark $cc \bar{c} \bar{c}$, pentaquark $cccc \bar{c}$, open-charm $cccccc$ and hidden-charm $ccc \bar{c} \bar{c} \bar{c}$ hexaquark structures with the minimum value of total spin ($S=0$ or $S=1/2$). We consider compact structures with radial wave functions including interactions between all the quarks in the cluster. We find that, in all cases, the mass of the multiquark decreases with the number of small units that conform the set of quarks. For instance, an open charm hexaquark made up of three diquarks has a smaller mass than a set of six of $c$ undistinguishable units. When the pieces that conform the multiquark are themselves colorless with a definite value of the total spin, the cluster splits into those smaller units that separate infinitely from each other.