Tritonlike molecules of three identical baryons

TL;DR

This paper investigates the possibility of three-hadron bound states resembling triton-like nuclei using a one-boson exchange model and variational methods, predicting potential three-baryon molecular states.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive theoretical prediction of triton-like three-baryon molecules based on two-body subsystem binding conditions.

Findings

Three-baryon systems may form bound states if their two-body subsystems are bound.

Predicted existence of three-hadron molecules in the baryon octet.

Numerical results guide future experimental searches for tri-hadron molecules.

Abstract

In nuclear physics, triton and helium-3 nucleus can be understood as three-body hadronic molecules. Analogous to the loosely bound structures for the triton and helium-3 nucleus, whether there is a bound state formed by three hadrons leaves us an open issue. Based on the one-boson exchange model as well as the adoption of the variational approach, we make a comprehensive investigation on the tritonlike systems of three identical baryons $NNN$, $\Lambda\Lambda\Lambda$, $\Xi\Xi\Xi$ and $\Sigma\Sigma\Sigma$. We predict that the three-body molecular states for the systems of three identical hadrons of baryon octet are probably existent as long as their two-body subsystems have bound states. The numerical results of this work may be helpful for the theoretical and experimental researches on the tri-hadron molecules in future.