Search for beautiful tetraquarks in the $\hat{I}\yen (1S)\hat{I}¼\hat{I}¼$ invariant-mass spectrum

Abstract

The $\hat{I}\yen (1S)\hat{I}{¼}^{+}\hat{I}{¼}^{-}$ invariant-mass distribution is investigated for a possible exotic meson state composed of two $b$ quarks and two $\overline{b}$ quarks, $X_{b\overline{b}b\overline{b}}$. The analysis is based on a data sample of $pp$ collisions recorded with the LHCb detector at centre-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s}=$ 7, 8 and 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 6.3 fb${}^{-1}$. No significant excess is found, and upper limits are set on the product of the production cross-section and the branching fraction as functions of the mass of the $X_{b\overline{b}b\overline{b}}$ state. The limits are set in the fiducial volume where all muons have pseudorapidity in the range $[2.0,5.0]$, and the $X_{b\overline{b}b\overline{b}}$ state has rapidity in the range $[2.0,4.5]$ and transverse momentum less than 15 GeV/$c$.

All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2018-027.html