Kaon spectrum revisited: bound states of high energy and spin

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has recently approved a world-unique QCD facility in which an updated version of the external M2 beam line of the CERN SPS in conjunction with a universal spectrometer of the COMPASS experiment is used. One of its main goals is to use highly intense and energetic kaon beams to map out the complete spectrum of excited kaons with an unprecedented precision; having a broad impact not only on low-energy QCD phenomenology, but also on many high-energy particle processes where excited kaons appear, such as the study of CP violation in heavy-meson decays studied at LHCb and Belle II. In support of the experimental effort, the kaon spectrum is computed herein using a constituent quark model which has been successfully applied to a wide range of hadronic observables, from light to heavy quark sectors, and thus the model parameters are completely constrained. The model's prediction can be used as a template against which to compare the already collected data and future experimental findings, in order to distinguish between conventional and exotic kaon states. We also compare our results with those available in the literature in order to provide some general statements, common to all calculations.

Automated summary

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has approved a unique QCD facility that combines an updated version of the CERN SPS external M2 beam line with the COMPASS experiment's universal spectrometer. The facility aims to map out the complete spectrum of excited kaons with unprecedented precision using highly intense and energetic kaon beams. This will have a significant impact on both low-energy QCD phenomenology and high-energy particle processes. The kaon spectrum is computed in this study using a constituent quark model and the results are compared with existing literature for further analysis.