Photoproduction of pentaquark cascades from nucleons

Abstract

The cross sections for production of pentaquark $Ξ^+_5$ from the reaction $γp\to K^0K^0Ξ^+_5$ and $Ξ^{--}_5$ from the reaction $γn\to K^+K^+Ξ^{--}_5$ are evaluated in a hadronic model that includes their couplings to both $Σ\bar K$ and $Σ\bar K^*$. With these coupling constants determined from the empirical $πNN(1710)$ and $ρNN(1710)$ coupling constants by assuming that $Ξ^+_5$, $Ξ^{--}_5$, and N(1710) belong to the same antidecuplet of spin 1/2 and positive parity, and using form factors at strong interaction vertices similar to those for pentaquark $Θ^+$ production in photonucleon reactions, we obtain a cross section of about 0.03-0.6 nb for the reaction $γp\to K^0K^0Ξ^+_5$ and about 0.1-0.6 nb for the reaction $γn\to K^+K^+Ξ^{--}_5$ at photon energy $E_γ=4.5$ GeV, depending on the value of the coupling constant $g_{K^*ΣΞ_5}$.