Coupling Hadron-Hadron Thresholds within a Chiral Quark Model Approach

Heavy hadron spectroscopy was well understood within the naive quark model until the end of the past century. However, in 2003, the X(3872) was discovered, with puzzling properties difficult to understand in the simple naive quark model picture. This state made clear that excited states of heavy mesons should be coupled to two-meson states in order to understand not only the masses but, in some cases, unexpected decay properties. In this work, we will give an overview of a way in which the naive quark model can be complemented with the coupling to two hadron thresholds. This program has been already applied to the heavy meson spectrum with the chiral quark model, and we show some examples where thresholds are of special relevance.

Automated summary

Heavy hadron spectroscopy was well understood in the naive quark model until the discovery of X(3872) in 2003, which revealed the limitations of the simple model and the need to consider coupling to two-meson states for a better understanding of excited states of heavy mesons.