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Val Fitch
Most recently I have been pursuing the question of the existence of the
H particle ("H" for hexaquark). This particle was first proposed by Robert
Jaffe who noted that the special symmetry of two u, two d, and two s quarks
should lead to a stable particle (stable with respect to the strong interactions)
with the quark content of two lambdas. He estimated that the mass should be about
80 MeV below the sum of the masses of two lambda particles. Subsequent calculations
using a wide variety of models have given mass estimates ranging from values less
than the deuteron to unbound states. The existence of the H remains an experimental
question. The driving interest in the particle lies in its being a new state of
matter (six quarks in one bag). In addition, if the mass is near the deuteron,
it could have a lifetime sufficiently long to have cosmological significance.
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