Production of charged heavy quarkonium-like states at the LHC and the Tevatron

TL;DR

This paper estimates the production rates of charged heavy quarkonium-like states at the LHC and Tevatron, suggesting they are detectable and can shed light on the nature of these exotic particles.

Contribution

It provides the first order-of-magnitude estimates of production cross sections for charged heavy quarkonium-like states assuming they are hadronic molecules.

Findings

Cross sections are at the nb level for Z_b states.

Cross sections for Z_c states are 20-30 times larger.

Production rates are sufficient for detection at hadron colliders.

Abstract

We study prompt hadroproduction of the charged bottomonium-like states $Z_b^\pm (10610)$ and $Z_b^\pm (10650)$, and the charged charmonium-like states $Z_c^\pm (3900)$ and $Z_c^\pm (4020)$, at the Tevatron and the LHC, provided that these states are $S$-wave hadronic molecules. Using two Monte Carlo event generators, Herwig and Pythia, to simulate the production of heavy meson pairs, we derive an order-of-magnitude estimate of the production rates for these four particles. Our estimates yield a cross section at the nb level for the $Z_b(10610)$ and $Z_b(10650)$. The results for the $Z_c(3900)$ and $Z_c(4020)$ are larger by a factor of 20-30. These cross sections are large enough to be observed, and measurements at hadron colliders in the future will supplement the study using electron-positron collisions, and therefore allow to explore the mysterious nature of these exotic states.