Colour flux-tubes in static Pentaquark and Tetraquark systems

TL;DR

This study uses lattice QCD to analyze the colour flux-tube structures in static tetraquark and pentaquark systems, revealing their geometric configurations and flux-tube behaviors at different distances.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed lattice QCD visualization of flux-tube geometries in static pentaquark and tetraquark systems, including the double-Y and three-Y configurations.

Findings

Tetraquark flux-tube forms a double-Y shape with two Steiner points.

Pentaquark flux-tube is described by a three-Y shape with three Steiner points.

Flux-tube configurations depend on quark-antiquark pair proximity.

Abstract

The colour fields created by the static tetraquark and pentaquark systems are computed in quenched SU(3) lattice QCD, with gauge invariant lattice operators, in a 24^3 x 48 lattice at beta=6.2. We generate our quenched configurations with GPUs, and detail the respective benchmanrks in different SU(N) groups. While at smaller distances the coulomb potential is expected to dominate, at larger distances it is expected that fundamental flux tubes, similar to the flux-tube between a quark and an antiquark, emerge and confine the quarks. In order to minimize the potential the fundamental flux tubes should connect at 120o angles. We compute the square of the colour fields utilizing plaquettes, and locate the static sources with generalized Wilson loops and with APE smearing. The tetraquark system is well described by a double-Y-shaped flux-tube, with two Steiner points, but when quark-antiquark pairs are close enough the two junctions collapse and we have an X-shaped flux-tube, with one Steiner point. The pentaquark system is well described by a three-Y-shaped flux-tube where the three flux the junctions are Steiner points.