Quantum mechanics

Quark

Materials science

Meson

Nuclear physics

Particle physics

Gravitational singularity

Invariant mass

Hadron

Color confinement

Hadron spectroscopy

Matrix (chemical analysis)

Physics

Exotic hadron

Composite material

Quantum chromodynamics

Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics

The spectrum of hadrons is the manifestation of color confinement of quantum chromodynamics. Hadronic resonances correspond to poles of the S-matrix. Since 2003, lots of new hadron resonant structures were discovered in the mass regions from light mesons to hadrons containing a pair of a heavy quark and an antiquark. Many of them are candidates of exotic hadrons, and they are usually observed as peaks in invariant mass distributions. However, the S-matrix also has kinematical singularities due to the on-shellness of intermediate particles for a process, such as two-body thresholds and triangle singularities, and they can produce peaks as well. On the one hand, such singularities may be misidentified as resonances; on the other hand, they can be used as tools for precision measurements. In this paper, we review the threshold cusps and various triangle singularities in hadronic reactions, paying attention to their manifestations in phenomena related to exotic hadron candidates.

Threshold cusps and triangle singularities in hadronic reactions