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  • Open Access

QQQ¯Q¯ quark system and gauge/string duality

Oleg Andreev*

  • Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics, LMU-München, Theresienstrasse 37, 80333 Munich, Germany

  • *Also on leave from L.D. Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics.
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 046003 – Published 6 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/kzkf-gvyn

Abstract

We propose a stringy description of a system composed of two heavy quarks and two heavy antiquarks, mimicking that in pure SU(3) gauge theory. We present both analytical and numerical studies of the string configurations for rectangular geometries. As an application, we analyze the two lowest Born-Oppenheimer potentials. Our results suggest that, depending on the geometry and quark ordering, the ground state of the QQQ¯Q¯ system may be a hadronic molecule, a tetraquark state, or a superposition of the two. For general geometries, we derive the asymptotic expression for the energy of the tetraquark configuration in the infrared limit and extend this result to multiquark configurations. Here we also demonstrate the universality of the string tension.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 046003– Published 6 February, 2026
  • Received 7 November 2025
  • Accepted 16 January 2026
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