Jan 2014 - Sep 2014

Confirmation of the Z(4430) resonance and other exotic meson results from the LHCb experiment

by Greig Cowan

Europe/London
OC218

OC218

Description
The LHCb experiment at CERN has recently confirmed the existence of the exotic Z(4430)- state first observed by the Belle experiment in 2008. Its quantum numbers have been measured and the resonant nature of this state has been demonstrated for the first time. As it is charged, the Z(4430)- cannot be classified as a conventional charmonium (ccbar) state, making it a candidate for an exotic resonance composed of four quarks (ccbar udbar). This talk will outline the history of the Z(4430)-, its possible interpretations and describe how the signature of this exotic state can be extracted from the large sample of B0 -> psi(2S) K+pi- decays that LHCb has collected during Run-1 of the LHC. I will also describe recent LHCb results that probe the nature of the exotic X(3872) particle and help to clarify our understanding of the f0(500) and f0(980) scalar mesons that have long thought to be four quark states.