Konwersatorium im. Leopolda Infelda

The study of matter-antimatter molecules has a long history, starting with the pioneering work of John A. Wheeler in 1946. Molecular states appears not only in atomic and molecular physics, but also in sub-atomic physics. We shall review the evidence for molecular states in subatomic systems and discuss the recently observed X(3872) as a heavy-quark meson molecule [1]. Because a large number of particles and antiparticles are produced in high-energy (e+)-(e-) annihilations and nuclear collisions, we examine further the stability of matter-antimatter molecules with constituents (m1+, m2-, m2bar+, m1bar-) under their mutual electromagnetic interactions [2]. We find that matter-antimatter molecules possess bound states if their constituent mass ratio m1/m2 is greater than about 4. This stability condition suggests that the binding of matter-antimatter molecules is a rather common phenomenon.

[1] Cheuk-Yin Wong, Phys. Rev. C69, 055202 (2004) [arXiv:hep-ph/0311088].
[2] Cheuk-Yin Wong and Teck-Ghee Lee, [arXiv:1103.5774] (2011).