Speaker
Description
The Standard Model describes ordinary hadrons, such as mesons (quark pairs) and baryons (three-quark structures). However, QCD predicts the existence of several exotic yet unseen states. These include two-quark, four-quark, molecular, hybrid states, and glueballs. In particular, the glueball, a unique bound state composed entirely of gluons, is particularly interesting. Lattice QCD calculations predict that the lightest scalar glueballs have a mass range between 1500 and 1700 MeV/c$^2$, with quantum numbers J$^{PC}$ = $0^{++}$. However, their experimental search is challenging due to their mixing with scalar mesonic states in the nearby mass range that share the same quantum numbers. The excellent particle identification capabilities of the ALICE detector and the unprecedented amount of data collected with pp collisions in Run 3 provide a unique opportunity to explore the experimental search for glueballs and learn about their internal structure, testing QCD predictions in the process. This contribution presents the measurement of resonances at midrapidity in the mass range of 1000–3000 MeV/c$^2$, using the $\mathrm{K_S^0K_S^0}$ and $\mathrm{K^+K^-}$ decay channels for proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13.6$ TeV with ALICE.
| Category | Experiment |
|---|---|
| Collaboration (if applicable) | ALICE collaboration |
