The structure of the $X(3915)$ meson and its production in heavy ion collisions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the internal structure of the $X(3915)$ meson using a quark model and proposes that its production patterns in heavy ion collisions can reveal whether it is a charmonium, tetraquark, or molecular state.

Contribution

The study combines quark model analysis with heavy ion collision simulations to suggest a method for identifying the $X(3915)$'s structure through experimental measurements.

Findings

Ground state favors a $D_s ar{D}_s$ configuration.

Production patterns vary significantly with assumed structure.

Transverse momentum distributions can distinguish different internal configurations.

Abstract

We study the structure of the $X(3915)$ meson in a quark model and explore how its production in heavy ion collisions depends on its internal structure. We first analyze the $X(3915)$ as a $c\bar{c}s\bar{s}$ state and solve the Hamiltonian with color-spin interactions within the quark model. We find that the ground state of the $c\bar{c}s\bar{s}$ with total spin 0 obtained from the quark model analysis favors a separated $D_s \bar{D}_s$ state. To probe its structure further, we study its production in relativistic heavy ion collisions for various proposed configurations. We calculate the transverse momentum distributions and yields for the $X(3915)$ assuming its structure to be either a charmonium, a tetraquark, or a hadronic molecular state. We argue that by measuring the transverse momentum distributions and yields of the $X(3915)$ produced in heavy ion collisions, one can identify the structure of the $X(3915)$.