Standard Model of particle physics
Elementary particles of the Standard Model
Background Particle physics Standard Model Quantum field theory Gauge theory Spontaneous symmetry breaking Higgs mechanism
Constituents Electroweak interaction Quantum chromodynamics CKM matrix Standard Model mathematics
Limitations Strong CP problem Hierarchy problem Neutrino oscillations Physics beyond the Standard Model
Scientists Rutherford Thomson Chadwick Bose Sudarshan Davis Jr Anderson Fermi Dirac Feynman Rubbia Gell-Mann Kendall Taylor Friedman Powell Anderson Glashow Iliopoulos Lederman Maiani Meer Cowan Nambu Chamberlain Cabibbo Schwartz Perl Majorana Weinberg Lee Ward Salam Kobayashi Maskawa Mills Yang Yukawa 't Hooft Veltman Gross Pais Pauli Politzer Reines Schwinger Wilczek Cronin Fitch Vleck Higgs Englert Brout Hagen Guralnik Kibble de Mayolo Lattes Zweig
v t e

In particle physics, a tetraquark is an exotic meson composed of four valence quarks. A tetraquark state has long been suspected to be allowed by quantum chromodynamics,^[1] the modern theory of strong interactions. A tetraquark state is an example of an exotic hadron which lies outside the conventional quark model classification. A number of different types of tetraquark have been observed.^[2][3]

History and discoveries

Several tetraquark candidates have been reported by particle physics experiments in the 21st century. The quark contents of these states are almost all qqQQ, where q represents a light (up, down or strange) quark, Q represents a heavy (charm or bottom) quark, and antiquarks are denoted with an overline. The existence and stability of tetraquark states with the qqQQ (or qqQQ) have been discussed by theoretical physicists for a long time, however these are yet to be reported by experiments.^[4]

Timeline

In 2003, a particle temporarily called X(3872), by the Belle experiment in Japan, was proposed to be a tetraquark candidate,^[6] as originally theorized.^[7] The name X is a temporary name, indicating that there are still some questions about its properties to be tested. The number following is the mass of the particle in MeV/c².

In 2004, the D_sJ(2632) state seen in Fermilab's SELEX was suggested as a possible tetraquark candidate.^[8]

In 2007, Belle announced the observation of the Z(4430) state, a
c

c

d

u
tetraquark candidate. There are also indications that the Y(4660), also discovered by Belle in 2007, could be a tetraquark state.^[9]

In 2009, Fermilab announced that they have discovered a particle temporarily called Y(4140), which may also be a tetraquark.^[10]

In 2010, two physicists from DESY and a physicist from Quaid-i-Azam University re-analyzed former experimental data and announced that, in connection with the
ϒ
(5S) meson (a form of bottomonium), a well-defined tetraquark resonance exists.^[11][12]

In June 2013, the BES III experiment in China and the Belle experiment in Japan independently reported on Z_c(3900), the first confirmed four-quark state.^[13]

In 2014, the Large Hadron Collider experiment LHCb confirmed the existence of the Z(4430) state with a significance of over 13.9 σ.^[14][15]

In February 2016, the DØ experiment reported evidence of a narrow tetraquark candidate, named X(5568), decaying to
B⁰
_s
π^±
.^[16] In December 2017, DØ also reported observing the X(5568) using a different
B⁰
_s final state.^[17] However, it was not observed in searches by the LHCb,^[18] CMS,^[19] CDF,^[20] or ATLAS^[21] experiments.

In June 2016, LHCb announced the discovery of three additional tetraquark candidates, called X(4274), X(4500) and X(4700).^[22][23][24]

In 2020, LHCb announced the discovery of a
c

c

c

c
tetraquark: X(6900).^[2][25] In 2022, ATLAS observed X(6900).^[26]

In 2021, LHCb announced the discovery of four additional tetraquarks, including ccus.^[3]

In 2022, LHCb announced the discovery of csud and csud.^[27]