Exotic-hadron hunt uncovers two surprising structures in the strangeonium sector
Physicists at Jefferson Lab’s GlueX experiment, using a high-intensity photon beam, found two unexpected structures near the known Y(2175) instead of confirming it: Y(2240) with about 5σ significance and X(1830) with about 3σ. While their exact nature is not yet known, these results suggest unusual quark–gluon configurations and potential gluonic contributions, providing new targets for testing exotic-matter theories and refining understanding of the strong force.