Overview
- The new baryon contains two charm quarks and one down quark, making it about four times heavier than a proton.
- Analysis finds a clear peak of roughly 915 events at a mass of 3619.97 MeV/c² with discovery-level significance.
- This is the first particle identified after LHCb’s 2023 upgrades and only the second ever baryon with two heavy quarks observed.
- The result places the Ξcc⁺ near the mass of its 2017 partner Ξcc⁺⁺, contradicting the much lower value reported by SELEX in 2002.
- The particle’s lifetime is predicted to be up to six times shorter than its partner, underscoring the challenge of detection and offering new tests for quantum chromodynamics.