Exploring bound states and interactions of the nucleon-antinucleon system in a constituent quark model

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential for bound states in the nucleon-antinucleon system using a constituent quark model, highlighting significant attraction in certain channels that suggest bound state formation.

Contribution

It constructs nucleon-antinucleon wave functions respecting Pauli exclusion and explores bound state possibilities with a detailed Hamiltonian including various interactions.

Findings

Significant attraction in specific channels

Indication of possible bound states

Wave functions satisfying Pauli principle

Abstract

In this work, we study the nucleon-antinucleon system in a constituent quark model. We first construct the nucleon-antinucleon wave function such that the multiquark and multiantiquark components each satisfy the Pauli exclusion principle, and then investigate the possibility of a bound state using a Hamiltonian that includes color-color, spin-dependent interactions and three-quark potentials. Our results indicate that, in specific channels, the nucleon-antinucleon interaction exhibits significant attraction, suggesting a strong possibility of a bound state.