Stability of hexaquarks in the string limit of confinement

Abstract

The stability of systems containing six quarks or antiquarks is studied within a simple string model inspired by the strong-coupling regime of quantum chromodynamics and used previously for tetraquarks and pentaquarks. We discuss both six-quark (q6) and three-quark-three-antiquark (q3q ̄3) states. The quarks are assumed to be distinguishable and thus not submitted to antisymmetrization. It is found that the ground state of (q6) is stable against dissociation into two isolated baryons. For the case of (q3q ̄3), our results indicate the existence of a bound state very close to the threshold. The investigations are extended to (q3Q3) and (Q3q ̄3) systems with two different constituent masses, and their stability is discussed as a function of the mass ratio. © 2012 American Physical Society.