Magnetic moments of open bottom--charm molecular pentaquark octets

Abstract

We present a comprehensive theoretical investigation of the magnetic moments of open heavy-flavor molecular pentaquarks with quark compositions $b\bar{c}qqq$ and $c\bar{b}qqq$ (where $q=u,d,s$). Employing a molecular picture in which the pentaquarks are treated as S-wave bound states of a heavy baryon and a meson, we systematically construct the complete spin--flavor wavefunctions for the two distinct SU(3)$_f$ octet representations, $8_{1f}$ and $8_{2f}$, arising from symmetric and antisymmetric light-diquark configurations, respectively. Within the framework of the constituent quark model, we calculate the magnetic moments of spin-parity configurations, $J^P = \frac{1}{2}^-(\frac{1}{2}^+\otimes 0^-)$ and $J^P = \frac{1}{2}^-, \frac{3}{2}^-(\frac{1}{2}^+\otimes 1^-)$, for each member of the $b\bar{c}$ and $c\bar{b}$ octets. Our results reveal a striking hierarchy: in the $8_{2f}$ representation, the $\frac{1}{2}^+\otimes 0^-$ states exhibit near-universal magnetic moments ($\mu \approx -0.062\,\mu_N$ for $b\bar{c}qqq$ and $\mu \approx +0.362\,\mu_N$ for $c\bar{b}qqq$), as a direct consequence of the spin-singlet light-diquark that suppresses light-quark contributions. In contrast, the $8_{1f}$ representation shows a broad spectrum of values with frequent sign changes, reflecting the active role of the symmetric light-diquark. The clear differences between the $b\bar{c}$ and $c\bar{b}$ families demonstrate explicit heavy-quark flavor symmetry breaking in electromagnetic observables. These predictions provide a detailed set of electromagnetic benchmarks that can serve as discriminants for the internal flavor structure and spin configuration of future experimentally observed open heavy-flavor pentaquarks, offering valuable guidance for ongoing and future searches at facilities such as LHCb and Belle II.