Two decades after its unexpected discovery, the properties of the $X(3872)$ exotic resonance are still under intense scrutiny. In particular, there are doubts about its nature as an ensemble of mesons or having any other internal structure. We use a
Diffusion Monte Carlo method to solve the many-body Schrodinger equation that describes this state as a $c bar c n bar n$ ($n=u$ or $d$ quark) system. This approach accounts for multi-particle correlations in physical observables avoiding the usual quark-clustering assumed in other theoretical techniques. The most general and accepted pairwise Coulomb$,+,$linear-confining$,+,$hyperfine spin-spin interaction, with parameters obtained by a simultaneous fit of around 100 masses of mesons and baryons, is used. The $X(3872)$ contains light quarks whose masses are given by the mechanism responsible of the dynamical breaking of chiral symmetry. The same mechanisms gives rise to Goldstone-boson exchange interactions between quarks that have been fixed in the last 10-20 years reproducing hadron, hadron-hadron and multiquark phenomenology. It appears that a meson-meson molecular configuration is preferred but, contrary to the usual assumption of $D^0bar{D}^{ast0}$ molecule for the $X(3872)$, our formalism produces $omega J/psi$ and $rho J/psi$ clusters as the most stable ones, which could explain in a natural way all the observed features of the $X(3872)$.
We use a diffusion Monte Carlo method to solve the many-body Schrodinger equation describing fully-heavy tetraquark systems. This approach allows to reduce the uncertainty of the numerical calculation at the percent level, accounts for multi-particle
correlations in the physical observables, and avoids the usual quark-clustering assumed in other theoretical techniques applied to the same problem. The interaction between particles was modeled by the most general and accepted potential, i.e. a pairwise interaction including Coulomb, linear-confining and hyperfine spin-spin terms. This means that, in principle, our analysis should provide some rigorous statements about the mass location of the all-heavy tetraquark ground states, which is particularly timely due to the very recent observation made by the LHCb collaboration of some enhancements in the invariant mass spectra of $J/psi$-pairs. Our main results are: (i) the $ccbar cbar c$, $ccbar bbar b$ ($bbbar cbar c$) and $bbbar b bar b$ lowest-lying states are located well above their corresponding meson-meson thresholds; (ii) the $J^{PC}=0^{++}$ $ccbar cbar c$ ground state with preferred quark-antiquark pair configurations is compatible with the enhancement(s) observed by the LHCb collaboration; (iii) our results for the $ccbar cbar b$ and $bbbar cbar b$ sectors seem to indicate that the $0^+$ and $1^+$ ground states are almost degenerate with the $2^+$ located around $100,text{MeV}$ above them; (iv) smaller mass splittings for the $cbbar cbar b$ system are predicted, with absolute mass values in reasonable agreement with other theoretical works; (v) the $1^{++}$ $cbbar cbar b$ tetraquark ground state lies at its lowest $S$-wave meson-meson threshold and it is compatible with a molecular configuration.
Although the spectra of heavy quarkonium systems has been successfully explained by certain QCD motivated potential models, their strong decays are difficult to deal with. We perform a microscopic calculation of charmonium strong decays using the sam
e constituent quark model which successfully describes the $cbar{c}$ meson spectrum. We compare the numerical results with the $^{3}P_{0}$ and the experimental data. Comparison with other predictions from similar models are included.
The BaBar Collaboration has recently reported branching fractions for semileptonic decays of the $B$ meson into final states with charged and neutral $D_{1}(2420)$ and $D_{2}^{ast}(2460)$, two narrow orbitally excited charmed mesons. We evaluate thes
e branching fractions within the framework of a constituent quark model in two steps, one which involves a semileptonic decay and the other one mediated by a strong process. Our results are in agreement with the experimental data.
The task of mapping and explaining the spectrum of baryons and the structure of these states in terms of quarks and gluons is a longstanding challenge in hadron physics, which is likely to persist for another decade or more. We review the progress ma
de in this topic using a functional method based on Dyson-Schwinger equations. This framework provides a non-perturbative, Poincare-covariant continuum formulation of Quantum Chromodynamics which is able to extract novel insight on baryon properties since the physics at the hadron level is directly related with the underlying quark-gluon substructure, via convolution of Green functions.
We present a unified description of elastic and transition form factors involving the nucleon and its resonances; in particular, the $N(1440)$, $Delta(1232)$ and $Delta(1600)$. We compare predictions made using a framework built upon a Faddeev equati
on kernel and interaction vertices that possess QCD-kindred momentum dependence with results obtained using a confining, symmetry-preserving treatment of a vector$,otimes,$vector contact-interaction in a widely-used leading-order (rainbow-ladder) truncation of QCDs Dyson-Schwinger equations. This comparison explains that the contact-interaction framework produces hard form factors, curtails some quark orbital angular momentum correlations within a baryon, and suppresses two-loop diagrams in the elastic and transition electromagnetic currents. Such defects are rectified in our QCD-kindred framework and, by contrasting the results obtained for the same observables in both theoretical schemes, shows those objects which are most sensitive to the momentum dependence of elementary quantities in QCD.
Since the discovery of the $J/psi$, the quark model was very successful in describing the spectrum and properties of heavy mesons including only $qbar q$ components. However since 2003, with the discovery of the $X(3872)$, many states that can not be
accommodated on the naive quark model have been discovered, and they made unavoidable to include higher Fock components on the heavy meson states. We will give an overview of the success of the quark model for heavy mesons and point some of the states that are likely to be more complicated structures such as meson-meson molecules.
