Search for the Weak Decay of a Lightly Bound H Dibaryon

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for a hypothesized light H dibaryon state using Fermilab data, finding no evidence and setting exclusion limits on its mass and lifetime.

Contribution

First experimental search for a light H dibaryon state in the specified mass and lifetime range, providing constraints on its existence.

Findings

No candidate events observed for H decay.

Excluded mass region between 2.194 GeV and 2.231 GeV.

Set lifetime constraints from 5×10^{-10} sec to 1×10^{-3} sec.

Abstract

We present results of a search for a neutral, six-quark, dibaryon state called the \h, a state predicted to exist in several theoretical models. Observation of such a state would signal the discovery of a new form of hadronic matter. Analyzing data collected by experiment E799-II, using the KTeV detector at Fermilab, we searched for the decay $H^0 \to \Lambda p \piminus$ and found no candidate events. We exclude the region of lightly bound mass states just below the $\Lambda\Lambda$ mass threshold, $2.194~\gev < M_H < 2.231$~\gev, with lifetimes from $\sim$$ 5 \times 10^{-10}$~sec to $\sim$$1 \times 10^{-3}$~sec.