Lattice study on a tetra-quark state $T_{bb}$ in the HAL QCD method

TL;DR

This study uses lattice QCD with HAL QCD method to predict a bound doubly-bottomed tetra-quark state, providing quantitative binding energies and highlighting the significance of coupled channel effects.

Contribution

First lattice QCD calculation of a doubly-bottomed tetra-quark using HAL QCD method with coupled channel analysis and physical pion mass extrapolation.

Findings

Predicted a bound $T_{bb}$ state below the $ar{B}ar{B}^*$ threshold.

Coupled channel effects significantly increase the binding energy.

Estimated binding energy at physical pion mass is approximately 83 MeV.

Abstract

We study a doubly-bottomed tetra-quark state $(bb\bar{u}\bar{d})$ with quantum number $I(J^P)=0(1^+)$, denoted by $T_{bb}$, in lattice QCD with the Non-Relativistic QCD (NRQCD) quark action for $b$ quarks. Employing $(2+1)$-flavor gauge configurations at $a \approx 0.09$ {fm} on $32^3\times 64$ lattices, we have extracted the coupled channel potential between $\bar{B}\bar{B}^*$ and $\bar{B}^* \bar{B}^*$ in the HAL QCD method, which predicts an existence of a bound $T_{bb}$ below the $\bar{B}\bar{B}^*$ threshold. By extrapolating results at $m_\pi\approx 410,\, 570,\, 700$ {MeV} to the physical pion mass $m_\pi\approx140$ {MeV}, we obtain a biding energy with its statistical error as $E_{\rm binding}^{\rm (single)} = 155(17)$ MeV and $E_{\rm binding}^{\rm (coupled)} = 83(10)$ MeV, where ``coupled" means that effects due to virtual $\bar{B}^* \bar{B}^*$ states are included through the coupled channel potential, while only a potential for a single $\bar{B}\bar{B}^*$ channel is used in the analysis for ``single". A comparison shows that the effect from virtual $\bar{B}^* \bar{B}^*$ states is quite sizable to the binding energy of $T_{bb}$. We estimate systematic errors to be $\pm 20$ MeV at most, which are mainly caused by the NRQCD approximation for $b$ quarks.