Speaker
Description
Following the observation of hidden-charm pentaquarks ($P_{c\bar{c}}$) by the LHCb Collaboration [1], significant interest has grown in the potential existence of $P_{s\bar{s}}$ states, which could represent the strangeness-sector analogs of $P_{c\bar{c}}$.
We aim to search for $P_{s\bar{s}}$ states via the $\gamma d \to \phi p n$ reaction at the SPring-8/LEPS facility, using an incident photon beam with energies up to 2.4 GeV.
Final-state $K^+$ and $K^-$ from $\phi$-meson decays, as well as protons, were detected with a forward spectrometer, while neutrons were identified through missing-mass analysis.
We examined the invariant-mass distributions of $\phi p$ and $\phi n$ systems to search for possible pentaquark signatures.
The current status and preliminary results of this analysis will be discussed.
[1] R. Aaij \textit{et al.} (LHCb Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{122}, no. 22, 222001 (2019).