In recent years, the existence of a hadronically stable $\overline{b}\overline{b}ud$ tetraquark with quantum numbers $I(J^P)=0(1^{+})$ was confirmed by first principles lattice QCD computations. In this work we use lattice QCD to compare two frequently discussed competing structures for this tetraquark by considering meson-meson as well as diquark-antidiquark creation operators. We use the static-light approximation, where the two $\overline{b}$ quarks are assumed to be infinitely heavy with frozen positions, while the light $u$ and $d$ quarks are fully relativistic. By minimizing effective energies and by solving generalized eigenvalue problems we determine the importance of the meson-meson and the diquark-antidiquark creation operators with respect to the ground state. It turns out, that the diquark-antidiquark structure dominates for $\overline{b}\overline{b}$ separations $r\lesssim 0.25\mathrm{fm}$, whereas it becomes increasingly more irrelevant for larger separations, where the $I(J^P)=0(1^{+})$ tetraquark is mostly a meson-meson state. We also estimate the meson-meson to diquark-antidiquark ratio of this tetraquark and find around $60\%/40\%$.

• Received 11 January 2021
• Accepted 19 May 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.103.114506

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Published by the American Physical Society