Open Access

Molecular pentaquarks composed of a ground-state octet baryon and a $P$ -wave anticharmed meson

Yu-Yue Cui ¹, Rui Chen ^1,2,*, and Qi Huang³

¹Department of Physics and Synergetic Innovation Center for Quantum Effects and Applications, Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Structures and Quantum Control of Ministry of Education, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China
²Hunan Research Center of the Basic Discipline for Quantum Effects and Quantum Technologies, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China
³School of Physics and Technology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China

^*Contact author: chenrui@hunnu.edu.cn

Phys. Rev. D 113, 114034 – Published 17 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/kjyd-syxs

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the interactions between an excited anticharm meson doublet $({\bar{D}}_{1}, {\bar{D}}_{2}^{*})$ and ground-state octet baryons $(N, Λ, Σ, Ξ)$ with the aim of identifying possible molecular pentaquark states. A systematic analysis is performed within the one-boson-exchange model, which incorporates both $S$ - and $P$ -wave interactions, $S − D$ -wave mixing, and coupled-channel effects. By solving the Schrödinger equations, we can predict a rich spectrum of loosely bound anticharm molecular pentaquarks with strangeness $| S | = 0$ , 1, 2. Our results provide specific quantum number assignments and mass range predictions to guide future experimental searches at facilities such as LHCb and Belle II. The discovery of such states would significantly enrich the hadron spectrum and serve as a critical test of theoretical models for hadronic interactions.

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (95)

M. Gell-Mann, A schematic model of baryons and mesons, Phys. Lett. 8, 214 (1964).
G. Zweig, An SU(3) model for strong interaction symmetry and its breaking. Version 1, 10.17181/CERN-TH-401 (1964).
G. Zweig, An SU(3) model for strong interaction symmetry and its breaking. Version 2, 10.17181/CERN-TH-412 (1964).
D. Strottman, Multi—quark baryons and the MIT bag model, Phys. Rev. D 20, 748 (1979).
H. J. Lipkin, New possibilities for exotic hadrons: Anticharmed strange baryons, Phys. Lett. B 195, 484 (1987).
C. Gignoux, B. Silvestre-Brac, and J. M. Richard, Possibility of stable multi—quark baryons, Phys. Lett. B 193, 323 (1987).
T. Nakano (LEPS Collaboration), Evidence for a narrow S = $+ 1$ baryon resonance in photoproduction from the neutron, Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 012002 (2003).
K. H. Hicks, On the conundrum of the pentaquark, Eur. Phys. J. H 37, 1 (2012).
C. Alt et al.(NA49 Collaboration), Observation of an exotic $S = - 2$ , $Q = - 2$ baryon resonance in proton proton collisions at the CERN SPS, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 042003 (2004).
A. Aktas (H1 Collaboration), Evidence for a narrow anti-charmed baryon state, Phys. Lett. B 588, 17 (2004).
H. G. Fischer and S. Wenig, Are there $S = - 2$ pentaquarks?, Eur. Phys. J. C 37, 133 (2004).
M. I. Adamovich (WA89 Collaboration), Search for the exotic $Ξ^{- -} (1860)$ resonance in 340-GeV/c $Σ^{-}$ nucleus interactions, Phys. Rev. C 70, 022201 (2004).
ZEUS Collaboration, Search for a narrow charmed baryonic state decaying to $D^{* \pm} p^{\mp}$ in ep collisions at HERA, Eur. Phys. J. C 38, 29 (2004).
R. Aaij et al.(LHCb Collaboration), Observation of $J / ψ p$ resonances consistent with pentaquark states in $Λ_{b}^{0} \to J / ψ K^{-} p$ decays, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 072001 (2015).
R. Aaij et al. (LHCb Collaboration), Observation of a narrow pentaquark state, $P_{c} (4312)^{+}$ , and of two-peak structure of the $P_{c} (4450)^{+}$ , Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 222001 (2019).
R. Chen, X. Liu, and S. L. Zhu, Hidden-charm molecular pentaquarks and their charm-strange partners, Nucl. Phys. A954, 406 (2016).
C. J. Xiao, Y. Huang, Y. B. Dong, L. S. Geng, and D. Y. Chen, Exploring the molecular scenario of $P_{c} (4312)$ , $P_{c} (4440)$ , and $P_{c} (4457)$ , Phys. Rev. D 100, 014022 (2019).
K. Chen, R. Chen, L. Meng, B. Wang, and S. L. Zhu, Systematics of the heavy flavor hadronic molecules, Eur. Phys. J. C 82, 581 (2022).
H. W. Ke, F. Lu, H. Pang, X. H. Liu, and X. Q. Li, Study on the possible molecular states composed of $Λ_{c} {\bar{D}}^{*}$ , $Σ_{c} {\bar{D}}^{*}$ , $Ξ_{c} {\bar{D}}^{*}$ and $Ξ_{c}^{'} {\bar{D}}^{*}$ in the Bethe–Salpeter frame based on the pentaquark states $P_{c} (4440)$ , $P_{c} (4457)$ and $P_{c s} (4459)$ , Eur. Phys. J. C 83, 1074 (2023).
H. Xu, Q. Li, C. H. Chang, and G. L. Wang, Recently observed $P_{c}$ as molecular states and possible mixture of $P_{c} (4457)$ , Phys. Rev. D 101, 054037 (2020).
R. Chen, Z. F. Sun, X. Liu, and S. L. Zhu, Strong LHCb evidence supporting the existence of the hidden-charm molecular pentaquarks, Phys. Rev. D 100, 011502 (2019).
M. Z. Liu, Y. W. Pan, F. Z. Peng, M. Sánchez Sánchez, L. S. Geng, A. Hosaka, and M. Pavon Valderrama, Emergence of a complete heavy-quark spin symmetry multiplet: Seven molecular pentaquarks in light of the latest LHCb analysis, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 242001 (2019).
J. He, Study of $P_{c} (4457)$ , $P_{c} (4440)$ , and $P_{c} (4312)$ in a quasipotential Bethe-Salpeter equation approach, Eur. Phys. J. C 79, 393 (2019).
Y. Yamaguchi, H. García-Tecocoatzi, A. Giachino, A. Hosaka, E. Santopinto, S. Takeuchi, and M. Takizawa, $P_{c}$ pentaquarks with chiral tensor and quark dynamics, Phys. Rev. D 101, 091502 (2020).
T. J. Burns and E. S. Swanson, Molecular interpretation of the $P_{c} (4440)$ and $P_{c} (4457)$ states, Phys. Rev. D 100, 114033 (2019).
Y. H. Lin and B. S. Zou, Strong decays of the latest LHCb pentaquark candidates in hadronic molecule pictures, Phys. Rev. D 100, 056005 (2019).
C. W. Xiao, J. Nieves, and E. Oset, Heavy quark spin symmetric molecular states from ${\bar{D}}^{(*)} Σ_{c}^{(*)}$ and other coupled channels in the light of the recent LHCb pentaquarks, Phys. Rev. D 100, 014021 (2019).
M. Karliner and J. L. Rosner, New strange pentaquarks, Phys. Rev. D 106, 036024 (2022).
X. K. Dong, F. K. Guo, and B. S. Zou, A survey of heavy-antiheavy hadronic molecules, Progr. Phys. 41, 65 (2021).
F. L. Wang and X. Liu, Emergence of molecular-type characteristic spectrum of hidden-charm pentaquark with strangeness embodied in the $P_{ψ s}^{Λ} (4338)$ and $P_{c s} (4459)$ , Phys. Lett. B 835, 137583 (2022).
M. J. Yan, F. Z. Peng, M. Sánchez Sánchez, and M. Pavon Valderrama, $P {ψ s}^{Λ} (4338)$ pentaquark and its partners in the molecular picture, Phys. Rev. D 107, 074025 (2023).
C. Fernández-Ramírez, A. Pilloni, M. Albaladejo, A. Jackura, V. Mathieu, M. Mikhasenko, J. A. Silva-Castro, and A. P. Szczepaniak (JPAC Collaboration), Interpretation of the LHCb ${P_{c} (4312)}^{+}$ signal, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 092001 (2019).
M. L. Du, V. Baru, F. K. Guo, C. Hanhart, U. G. Meißner, J. A. Oller, and Q. Wang, Interpretation of the LHCb $P_{c}$ states as hadronic molecules and hints of a narrow $P_{c} (4380)$ , Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 072001 (2020).
H. X. Chen, W. Chen, and S. L. Zhu, Possible interpretations of the $P_{c} (4312)$ , $P_{c} (4440)$ , and $P_{c} (4457)$ , Phys. Rev. D 100, 051501 (2019).
Z. H. Guo and J. A. Oller, Anatomy of the newly observed hidden-charm pentaquark states: $P_{c} (4312)$ , $P_{c} (4440)$ and $P_{c} (4457)$ , Phys. Lett. B 793, 144 (2019).
B. Wang, L. Meng, and S. L. Zhu, Hidden-charm and hidden-bottom molecular pentaquarks in chiral effective field theory, J. High Energy Phys. 11 (2019) 108.
L. Meng, B. Wang, G. J. Wang, and S. L. Zhu, The hidden charm pentaquark states and $Σ_{c} {\bar{D}}^{(*)}$ interaction in chiral perturbation theory, Phys. Rev. D 100, 014031 (2019).
M. B. Voloshin, Some decay properties of hidden-charm pentaquarks as baryon-meson molecules, Phys. Rev. D 100, 034020 (2019).
Z. G. Wang and X. Wang, Analysis of the strong decays of the $P_{c} (4312)$ as a pentaquark molecular state with QCD sum rules, Chin. Phys. C 44, 103102 (2020).
T. Gutsche and V. E. Lyubovitskij, Structure and decays of hidden heavy pentaquarks, Phys. Rev. D 100, 094031 (2019).
R. Zhu, X. Liu, H. Huang, and C. F. Qiao, Analyzing doubly heavy tetra- and penta-quark states by variational method, Phys. Lett. B 797, 134869 (2019).
G. J. Wang, L. Y. Xiao, R. Chen, X. H. Liu, X. Liu, and S. L. Zhu, Probing hidden-charm decay properties of $P_{c}$ states in a molecular scenario, Phys. Rev. D 102, 036012 (2020).
M. L. Du, V. Baru, F. K. Guo, C. Hanhart, U. G. Meißner, J. A. Oller, and Q. Wang, Revisiting the nature of the $P_{c}$ pentaquarks, J. High Energy Phys. 08 (2021) 157.
C. W. Shen, D. Rönchen, U. G. Meißner, B. S. Zou, and Y. F. Wang, Exploration of the LHCb $P_{c}$ states and possible resonances in a unitary coupled-channel model, Eur. Phys. J. C 84, 764 (2024).
R. Molina, C. W. Xiao, and E. Oset, $J / ψ$ reaction mechanisms and suppression in the nuclear medium, Phys. Rev. C 86, 014604 (2012).
Z. C. Yang, Z. F. Sun, J. He, X. Liu, and S. L. Zhu, The possible hidden-charm molecular baryons composed of anti-charmed meson and charmed baryon, Chin. Phys. C 36, 6 (2012).
J. J. Wu, R. Molina, E. Oset, and B. S. Zou, Prediction of narrow $N^{*}$ and $Λ^{*}$ resonances with hidden charm above 4 GeV, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 232001 (2010).
W. L. Wang, F. Huang, Z. Y. Zhang, and B. S. Zou, $Σ_{c} \bar{D}$ and $Λ_{c} \bar{D}$ states in a chiral quark model, Phys. Rev. C 84, 015203 (2011).
M. Karliner and J. L. Rosner, New exotic meson and baryon resonances from doubly-heavy hadronic molecules, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 122001 (2015).
X. Q. Li and X. Liu, A possible global group structure for exotic states, Eur. Phys. J. C 74, 3198 (2014).
R. Chen, Z. F. Sun, X. Liu, and S. M. Gerasyuta, Predicting exotic molecular states composed of nucleon and P-wave charmed meson, Phys. Rev. D 90, 034011 (2014).
H. Y. Cheng and K. C. Yang, Charmless hadronic $B$ decays into a tensor meson, Phys. Rev. D 83, 034001 (2011).
Y. Y. Cui, X. M. Tang, Q. Huang, and R. Chen, Emergence of charm-strange dibaryons with negative parity via baryon–baryon interactions, Eur. Phys. J. C 85, 1460 (2025).
X. M. Tang, L. c. Sheng, Q. Huang, and R. Chen, The recoil corrections, correlation functions and possible double-strange hadronic molecules, Phys. Lett. B 870, 139896 (2025).
N. A. Tornqvist, From the deuteron to deusons, an analysis of deuteron-like meson meson bound states, Z. Phys. C 61, 525 (1994).
N. A. Tornqvist, On deusons or deuteron-like meson meson bound states, Nuovo Cimento Soc. Ital. Fis. 107A, 2471 (1994).
J. Y. Huo, L. C. Sheng, R. Chen, and X. Liu, Predicting possible molecular states of nucleons with $Ξ_{c}$ , $Ξ_{c}^{*}$ , and $Ξ_{c}^{'}$ , Phys. Rev. D 110, 054040 (2024).
Y. R. Liu and M. Oka, $Λ_{c} N$ bound states revisited, Phys. Rev. D 85, 014015 (2012).
Y. R. Liu, X. Liu, W. Z. Deng, and S. L. Zhu, Is $X (3872)$ really a molecular state?, Eur. Phys. J. C 56, 63 (2008).
C. E. Thomas and F. E. Close, Is $X (3872)$ a molecule?, Phys. Rev. D 78, 034007 (2008).
X. Liu, Z. G. Luo, Y. R. Liu, and S. L. Zhu, $X (3872)$ and other possible heavy molecular states, Eur. Phys. J. C 61, 411 (2009).
I. W. Lee, A. Faessler, T. Gutsche, and V. E. Lyubovitskij, $X (3872)$ as a molecular $D D^{*}$ state in a potential model, Phys. Rev. D 80, 094005 (2009).
R. Chen, X. Liu, X. Q. Li, and S. L. Zhu, Identifying exotic hidden-charm pentaquarks, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 132002 (2015).
R. Chen and X. Liu, Is the newly reported $X (5568)$ a $B \bar{K}$ molecular state?, Phys. Rev. D 94, 034006 (2016).
K. Chen, R. Chen, Z. F. Sun, and X. Liu, $\bar{K} Λ$ molecular explanation to the newly observed $Ξ (1620)^{0}$ , Phys. Rev. D 100, 074006 (2019).
R. Chen, Q. Huang, X. Liu, and S. L. Zhu, Predicting another doubly charmed molecular resonance $T_{c c}^{'} (3876)$ , Phys. Rev. D 104, 114042 (2021).
R. Chen, Can the newly reported $P_{c s} (4459)$ be a strange hidden-charm $Ξ_{c} {\bar{D}}^{*}$ molecular pentaquark?, Phys. Rev. D 103, 054007 (2021).
R. Chen and Q. Huang, $Z_{c s} (3985)^{-}$ : A strange hidden-charm tetraquark resonance or not?, Phys. Rev. D 103, 034008 (2021).
R. Chen and Q. Huang, Charmoniumlike resonant explanation on the newly observed $X (3960)$ , Phys. Lett. B 846, 138254 (2023).
R. Chen and X. Liu, Mass behavior of hidden-charm open-strange pentaquarks inspired by the established $P_{c}$ molecular states, Phys. Rev. D 105, 014029 (2022).
F. L. Wang, R. Chen, and X. Liu, Prediction of hidden-charm pentaquarks with double strangeness, Phys. Rev. D 103, 034014 (2021).
F. L. Wang, R. Chen, Z. W. Liu, and X. Liu, Probing new types of $P_{c}$ states inspired by the interaction between $S$ -wave charmed baryon and anti-charmed meson in a $\bar{T}$ doublet, Phys. Rev. C 101, 025201 (2020).
J. He, X. Liu, Z. F. Sun, and S. L. Zhu, $Z_{c} (4025)$ as the hadronic molecule with hidden charm, Eur. Phys. J. C 73, 2635 (2013).
N. Li, Z. F. Sun, X. Liu, and S. L. Zhu, Coupled-channel analysis of the possible $D^{(*)} D^{(*)}, {\bar{B}}^{(*)} {\bar{B}}^{(*)}$ and $D^{(*)} {\bar{B}}^{(*)}$ molecular states, Phys. Rev. D 88, 114008 (2013).
N. Li and S. L. Zhu, Hadronic molecular states composed of heavy flavor baryons, Phys. Rev. D 86, 014020 (2012).
Z. F. Sun, X. Liu, M. Nielsen, and S. L. Zhu, Hadronic molecules with both open charm and bottom, Phys. Rev. D 85, 094008 (2012).
Z. F. Sun, J. He, X. Liu, Z. G. Luo, and S. L. Zhu, $Z_{b} (10610)^{\pm}$ and $Z_{b} (10650)^{\pm}$ as the $B^{*} \bar{B}$ and $B^{*} {\bar{B}}^{*}$ molecular states, Phys. Rev. D 84, 054002 (2011).
N. Lee, Z. G. Luo, X. L. Chen, and S. L. Zhu, Possible deuteronlike molecular states composed of heavy baryons, Phys. Rev. D 84, 014031 (2011).
X. Liu and S. L. Zhu, $Y (4143)$ is probably a molecular partner of $Y (3930)$ , Phys. Rev. D 80, 017502 (2009).
X. Liu, Y. R. Liu, W. Z. Deng, and S. L. Zhu, $Z^{+} (4430)$ as a $D_{1}^{'} D^{*} (D_{1} D^{*})$ molecular state, Phys. Rev. D 77, 094015 (2008).
P. Chen, Z. W. Liu, Z. L. Zhang, S. Q. Luo, F. L. Wang, J. Z. Wang, and X. Liu, Role of electromagnetic interactions in the $X (3872)$ and its analogs, Phys. Rev. D 109, 094002 (2024).
Y. R. Liu, M. Oka, M. Takizawa, X. Liu, W. Z. Deng, and S. L. Zhu, $D \bar{D}$ production and their interactions, Phys. Rev. D 82, 014011 (2010).
X. D. Yang, F. L. Wang, Z. W. Liu, and X. Liu, Newly observed $X (4630)$ : A new charmoniumlike molecule, Eur. Phys. J. C 81, 807 (2021).
R. Q. Qian, F. L. Wang, and X. Liu, Finding interaction mechanism between exotic molecule and conventional hadron, Phys. Lett. B 862, 139329 (2025).
J. He and X. Liu, The open-charm radiative and pionic decays of molecular charmonium $Y (4274)$ , Eur. Phys. J. C 72, 1986 (2012).
M. B. Wise, Chiral perturbation theory for hadrons containing a heavy quark, Phys. Rev. D 45, R2188 (1992).
R. Casalbuoni, A. Deandrea, N. Di Bartolomeo, R. Gatto, F. Feruglio, and G. Nardulli, Light vector resonances in the effective chiral Lagrangian for heavy mesons, Phys. Lett. B 292, 371 (1992).
R. Casalbuoni, A. Deandrea, N. Di Bartolomeo, R. Gatto, F. Feruglio, and G. Nardulli, Phenomenology of heavy meson chiral Lagrangians, Phys. Rep. 281, 145 (1997).
T. M. Yan, H. Y. Cheng, C. Y. Cheung, G. L. Lin, Y. C. Lin, and H. L. Yu, Heavy quark symmetry and chiral dynamics, Phys. Rev. D 46, 1148 (1992).
F. L. Wang, R. Chen, Z. W. Liu, and X. Liu, Possible triple-charm molecular pentaquarks from $Ξ_{c c} D_{1} / Ξ_{c c} D_{2}^{*}$ interactions, Phys. Rev. D 99, 054021 (2019).
R. Machleidt, The high precision, charge dependent Bonn nucleon-nucleon potential (CD-Bonn), Phys. Rev. C 63, 024001 (2001).
R. Machleidt, K. Holinde, and C. Elster, The Bonn meson exchange model for the nucleon nucleon interaction, Phys. Rep. 149, 1 (1987).
X. Cao, B. S. Zou, and H. S. Xu, Phenomenological analysis of the double pion production in nucleon-nucleon collisions up to 2.2 GeV, Phys. Rev. C 81, 065201 (2010).
M. L. Du, V. Baru, X. K. Dong, A. Filin, F. K. Guo, C. Hanhart, A. Nefediev, J. Nieves, and Q. Wang, Coupled-channel approach to $T_{c c}^{+}$ including three-body effects, Phys. Rev. D 105, 014024 (2022).
J. B. Cheng, Z. Y. Lin, J. Z. Wang, and S. L. Zhu, Decoding $Z_{c} (4430)$ and $Z_{c} (4200)$ : The role of P-wave charmed mesons, Phys. Rev. D 113, 096001 (2026).

Phys. Rev. D 113, 114034– Published 17 June, 2026

Vol. 113, Iss. 11 — 1 June 2026

Received 22 January 2026
Accepted 19 May 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/kjyd-syxs

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP³.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physical Review D

Reuse & Permissions

Export citation

Export citation

Molecular pentaquarks composed of a ground-state octet baryon and a $P$ -wave anticharmed meson

Abstract

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (95)

Outline

Information

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation

Molecular pentaquarks composed of a ground-state octet baryon and a P-wave anticharmed meson

Abstract

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (95)

Molecular pentaquarks composed of a ground-state octet baryon and a $P$ -wave anticharmed meson