The Experimental Search for Pentaquark Original Research Article

The existence of an anti-decuplet of pentaquark particles has been predicted some year ago within the chiral soliton model. In the last year, several experimental groups have reported evidence for a S=+1 baryon resonance, with mass ranging from 1.52 and 1.55 GeV and width less than 25 MeV, by looking at the invariant mass of the KN system. This resonance, has been identified with the lowest mass of the anti-decuplet, the Θ+. At the same time, there are a number of experiment, mostly at high energies, that report null results. An overview of the experimental results so far obtained will be given here together with a review of the second generation experiments currently ongoing and planned at Jefferson Lab Hall B.