The BESIII collaboration have reported the observation of an anomalous line shape around ppbar mass threshold in the J/ψ→γ3(π+π-) decay, which indicates the existence of a ppbar bound state. The paper was published online in Physical Review Letters.
The proximity in mass to 2mp is suggestive of nucleon-antinucleon bound states, an idea that has a long history. Before the birth of Quark Model, a nucleon-antinucleon bound state was already proposed by Prof. E. Fermi and Prof. C. N. Yang.
There is an accumulation of evidence for anomalous behavior in the proton-antiproton system near the ppbar mass threshold, e.g., J/ψ→γppabr , J/ψ→γπ+π-η' and the proton's effective form factor determined from e+e-→ppbar, exhibiting a narrow peak or a very steep falloff around the ppbar mass threshold, which inspired many speculations and renewed the interests on the nucleon-antinucleon bound state. READ MORE...
