Pentaquark Searches at the BaBar Experiment

A review of the results in the inclusive and exclusive searches for pentaquark states obtained from the analysis of the data recorded at the BABAR experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center PEP-II B-Factory, is presented. Inclusive searches for the strange pentaquark states {Theta}{sub 5}(1540){sup +}, {Xi}{sub 5}(1860){sup --} and {Xi}{sub 5}(1860){sup 0} have been performed in a dataset of e{sup +}e{sup -} annihilations corresponding to 123.4 fb{sup -1} of integrated luminosity. No evidence is found and therefore the corresponding 95% confidence level upper limits on the {Theta}{sub 5}(1540){sup +} and {Xi}{sub 5}(1860){sup --} production rate are set. Additionally the decay {Theta}{sub 5}(1540){sup +} {yields} pK{sub S}{sup 0} has been searched for in events that correspond to interactions of both electrons and hadrons with the inner-most material of the BABAR detector, but then again, no evidence for such a process is found as a result of this analysis. The exclusive search of the {Theta}*{sup ++} pentaquark in the B meson decay B{sup +} {yields} {bar p}{Theta}*{sup ++} where {Theta}*{sup ++} {yields} pK{sup +}, has been carried out in a dataset of 210 fb{sup -1}. The results show no evidence for such a pentaquark in the mass range from 1.43 tomore » 2.00 GeV/c{sup 2} and thus the corresponding upper limits at the 90% confidence level has been set on the product of the branching fractions (BF's) BF(B{sup +} {yields} {bar p}{Theta}*{sup ++}) x BF({Theta}*{sup ++} {yields} pK{sup +}) at the 10{sup -7} level.« less