Search for {\Theta^+} in KLp \to K+n reaction in KLF at JLab

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential detection of the { heta}^+ pentaquark in the KLp o K+n reaction at JLab, addressing previous conflicting experimental results and proposing a formation experiment with a kaon beam.

Contribution

It proposes a novel formation experiment approach to observe the { heta}^+ pentaquark in the KLF experiment at JLab, aiming to clarify its existence.

Findings

Analysis of the reaction channel for { heta}^+ detection.

Discussion on experimental challenges and detection strategies.

Potential for observing { heta}^+ in the proposed setup.

Abstract

The possibility of the existence of multiquark hadrons made of 4-quark for mesons and 5-quark for baryons was predicted by Gell-Mann in Ref. [1]. The renewed interest for the search of exotic pentaquark states was initiated by the paper by Diakonov, Petrov, and Polyakov in Ref. [2]. The 2003 experimental reports on the observation of {\Theta^+} pentaquark with a uudd{\bar s} quark content created a big excitement and many following experiments have reported its observation [3]. After high-statistics experiments at JLab, which did not confirm previous claims by the CLAS collaboration, the community concluded that the {\Theta^+} pentaquark either does not exist at all or has an extremely small cross section, making it currently unobserved. There were different review papers on this subject, either questioning the existence of the {\Theta^+} or attempting to explain the reasons why reaching a conclusion based on production experiments is challenging [4]. To address the challenge of minimal 3-body final states, a formation experiment with a projectile kaon beam is proposed. Below, we discuss how the {\Theta^+} could be observed in the KLp \to {\Theta^+} \to {K^+}n reaction in the KLF experiment at JLab [5].