The Experimental Search for Pentaquark

Abstract

The existence of an anti-decuplet of pentaquark particles has been predicted some year ago within the chiral soliton model. In the last year, several experimental groups have reported evidence for a S=+1 baryon resonance, with mass ranging from 1.52 and 1.55 GeV and width less than 25 MeV, by looking at the invariant mass of the $K N$ system. This resonance, has been identified with the lowest mass of the anti-decuplet, the $\Theta^+$. At the same time, there are a number of experiment, mostly at high energies, that report null results. An overview of the experimental results so far obtained will be given here together with a review of the second generation experiments currently ongoing and planned at Jefferson Lab Hall B.