$N\Omega$ dibaryon from lattice QCD near the physical point

TL;DR

This study uses lattice QCD near the physical point to investigate the N-Omega system, revealing an attractive potential and a near-threshold quasi-bound state, with implications for experimental searches in particle collisions.

Contribution

First lattice QCD calculation near physical quark masses showing an attractive N-Omega potential and a possible bound state in the spin-2 channel.

Findings

Attractive N-Omega potential in S-wave, spin-2 channel.

Predicted quasi-bound state with binding energy ~1.5 MeV.

Including Coulomb attraction, pΩ− bound state energy ~2.5 MeV.

Abstract

The nucleon($N$)-Omega($\Omega$) system in the S-wave and spin-2 channel ($^5$S$_2$) is studied from the (2+1)-flavor lattice QCD with nearly physical quark masses ($m_\pi \simeq 146$~MeV and $m_K \simeq 525$~MeV). The time-dependent HAL QCD method is employed to convert the lattice QCD data of the two-baryon correlation function to the baryon-baryon potential and eventually to the scattering observables. The $N\Omega$($^5$S$_2$) potential, obtained under the assumption that its couplings to the D-wave octet-baryon pairs are small, is found to be attractive in all distances and to produce a quasi-bound state near unitarity: In this channel, the scattering length, the effective range and the binding energy from QCD alone read $a_0= 5.30(0.44)(^{+0.16}_{-0.01})$~fm, $r_{\rm eff} = 1.26(0.01)(^{+0.02}_{-0.01})$~fm, $B = 1.54(0.30)(^{+0.04}_{-0.10})$~MeV, respectively. Including the extra Coulomb attraction, the binding energy of $p\Omega^-$($^5$S$_2$) becomes $B_{p\Omega^-} = 2.46(0.34)(^{+0.04}_{-0.11})$~MeV. Such a spin-2 $p\Omega^-$ state could be searched through two-particle correlations in $p$-$p$, $p$-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions.