Observation of<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:mi>J</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="false">/</mml:mo><mml:mi>ψ</mml:mi><mml:mi>p</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math>Resonances Consistent with Pentaquark States in<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msubsup><mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">Λ</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>b</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>0</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msubsup><mml:mo stretchy="false">→</mml:mo><mml:mi>J</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="false">/</mml:mo><mml:mi>ψ</mml:mi><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>K</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>−</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:msup><mml:mi>p</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math>Decays

Abstract

Observations of exotic structures in the J/ψp channel, which we refer to as charmonium-pentaquark states, in Λ_{b}^{0}→J/ψK^{-}p decays are presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb^{-1} acquired with the LHCb detector from 7 and 8 TeV pp collisions. An amplitude analysis of the three-body final state reproduces the two-body mass and angular distributions. To obtain a satisfactory fit of the structures seen in the J/ψp mass spectrum, it is necessary to include two Breit-Wigner amplitudes that each describe a resonant state. The significance of each of these resonances is more than 9 standard deviations. One has a mass of 4380±8±29 MeV and a width of 205±18±86 MeV, while the second is narrower, with a mass of 4449.8±1.7±2.5 MeV and a width of 39±5±19 MeV. The preferred J^{P} assignments are of opposite parity, with one state having spin 3/2 and the other 5/2.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Physical Review Letters, 2015 · DOI ↗