An introduction to the quark model

TL;DR

This review introduces the quark model, discussing its historical development, spectral properties of mesons and baryons, and exploring the potential for stable multiquark states, linking quantum systems with particle physics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the quark model, including spectral analysis and theoretical speculations on multiquark stability, with analogies to few-charge systems.

Findings

Spectral properties of mesons and baryons analyzed

Link established between meson and baryon spectra

Speculations on stable and metastable multiquarks

Abstract

This document contains a review on the quark model, prepared for lectures at the Niccolo Cabeo School at Ferrara in May 2012. It includes some historical aspects, the spectral properties of the 2-body and 3-body Schroedinger operators applied to mesons and baryons, the link between meson and baryon spectra, the role of flavour independence, and the speculations about stable or metastable multiquarks. The analogies between few-charge systems and few-quark bound states will be underlined.