Exotic hadrons aresubatomic particles composed ofquarks andgluons, but which – unlike "well-known"hadrons such asprotons,neutrons andmesons – consist of more than threevalence quarks. By contrast, "ordinary" hadrons contain just two or three quarks. Hadrons with explicit valence gluon content would also be considered exotic.^[1] In theory, there is no limit on the number of quarks in a hadron, as long as the hadron'scolor charge is white, or color-neutral.^[2]

Consistent with ordinary hadrons, exotic hadrons are classified as being eitherfermions, like ordinary baryons, orbosons, like ordinary mesons. According to this classification scheme,pentaquarks, containing five valence quarks, are exotic baryons, whiletetraquarks (four valence quarks) andhexaquarks (six quarks, consisting of either a dibaryon or three quark-antiquark pairs) would be consideredexotic mesons. Tetraquark and pentaquark particles are believed to have been observed and are being investigated;hexaquarks have not yet been confirmed as observed.

Exotic hadrons can be searched for by looking forS-matrix poles withquantum numbers forbidden to ordinary hadrons. Experimental signatures for such exotic hadrons had been seen by 2003 at the latest,^[3][4] but they remain a topic of controversy inparticle physics.

Jaffe and Low^[5] suggested that the exotic hadrons manifest themselves as poles of the P matrix, and not of the S matrix. ExperimentalP-matrix poles are determined reliably in both themeson–meson channels andnucleon–nucleon channels.

When the quark model was first postulated byMurray Gell-Mann and others in the 1960s, it was to organize the states known then to be in existence in a meaningful way. Asquantum chromodynamics (QCD) developed over the next decade, it became apparent that there was no reason why only three-quark and quark-antiquark combinations could exist. Indeed, Gell-Mann's original 1964 paper alludes to the possibility of exotic hadrons and classifies hadrons into baryons and mesons depending upon whether they have an odd (baryon) or even (meson) number of valence quarks.^[6] In addition, it seemed that gluons, the mediator particles of the strong interaction, could also form bound states by themselves (glueballs) and with quarks (hybrid hadrons). Several decades have passed without conclusive evidence of an exotic hadron that could be associated with the S-matrix pole.

There have been many observations of so-called 'exotic candidates' experimentally observed, which are particles that don't appear to fit the standard quark model. The first few exotic candidates to be identified include the X(3872), which was discovered by theBelle experiment in Japan^[7]; the Y(4260) which was discovered at theBaBar experiment^[8]; and the Z_c⁺(3900), which was discovered independently by theBES III experiment in China^[9] and the Belle experiment.^[10]

In April 2014, theLHCb collaboration confirmed the existence of the Z(4430)⁻, discovered by the Belle experiment, and demonstrated that it must have a minimal quark content of ccdu.^[11] Since this was the first exotic hadron to have it's quark content experimentally identified, it is also the first unambiguous discovery of an exotic hadron.^[12]

In July 2015, LHCb announced the discovery of two particles, namedP⁺
_c(4380) andP⁺
_c(4450), which must have minimal quark content ccuud, making thempentaquarks.^[13]

• Exotic matter
• Exotic meson
• Exotic baryon
• Tetraquark
• Pentaquark
• Hexaquark

• Hadrons
• Hypothetical composite particles

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