Evidence for the existence of a deeply bound dibaryon built entirely of beauty quarks

Dibaryons are the subatomic particles made of two baryons. Their formations through baryon-baryon interactions play a fundamental role in big bang nucleosynthesis, in nuclear reactions, including those in stellar environments, and provide a link between nuclear physics, cosmology and astrophysics.

Interestingly, the strong force, which is key to the existence of nuclei and provides most of their mass, allows the formation of countless other dibaryons with different combinations of quarks. However, we don’t see them in abundance – deuteron is the only known stable dibaryon.

To resolve this apparent dichotomy, it is essential to investigate dibaryons and baryon-baryon interactions at the fundamental level of strong interactions. In a recent publication in Physical assessment lettersphysicists at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and The Institute of Mathematical Science (IMSc) have provided strong evidence for the existence of a deeply bound dibaryon, made up entirely of bottom (beauty) quarks.

Using the computational facility of the Indian Lattice Gauge Theory Initiative (ILGTI), Prof. Nilmani Mathur and graduate student Debsubhra Chakraborty from the Department of Theoretical Physics, TIFR, and Dr. M. Padmanath of IMSc predicted the existence of this subatomic particle. The predicted dibaryon (D_6b) is made of two triple bottom Omega (Ω_bbb) baryons, with the maximum beauty taste.

Its binding energy is predicted to be as much as 40 times stronger than that of the deuteron, making it perhaps the most tightly bound beautiful dibaryon in our visible universe. This finding elucidates the intriguing features of strong forces in baryon-baryon interactions and opens the way for further systematic study of quark mass dependence of baryon-baryon interactions that may explain the emergence of bonds in nuclei.

It also gives motivation to look for such heavier exotic subatomic particles in next-generation experiments.

Since the strong force is largely non-disruptive in the low-energy domain, there is not yet a first-principles analytical solution for studying the structures and interactions of compound subatomic particles such as protons, neutrons and the nuclei they form. Formulation of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) on space-time grids, based on an intricate amalgamation of a fundamental theory and high-performance computing, offers an opportunity for such a study.

Not only does it require an advanced understanding of the quantum field theoretical issues, but the availability of large-scale computational resources is also crucial. In fact, some of the greatest scientific computational resources in the world are used by lattice meter theorists trying to solve the mystery of our universe’s strong interactions through their investigations within the femto world (within a scale of about a million). billionth of a meter).

Lattice QCD calculations can also play a vital role in understanding the nuclear formation in the Big Bang, their reaction mechanisms, in the search for physics beyond the Standard Model, and in the investigation of matter under the extreme conditions of high temperature and density. similar to those in the early stages of the universe after the big bang.