Semi-inclusive lepto-production of hidden-charm exotic hadrons *

Abstract

Abstract We investigate the semi-inclusive production of hidden-charm exotic states, including the , , and pentaquark states, in lepton-proton scattering processes. These hadrons are close to the thresholds of a pair of charm and anticharm hadrons and are assumed to possess a hadronic molecular structure as their main feature. To provide order-of-magnitude estimates of the cross sections, we use Pythia to simulate the short-distance productions of the constituent hadrons, which then rescatter to form exotic hadrons. The estimates for the and states are not in conflict with the upper limits measured in the COMPASS experiment for the exclusive photoproduction process. The results indicate that the considered hidden-charm states can be copiously produced at the proposed electron-ion colliders EicC and US-EIC.