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

Abstract: We investigate the semi-inclusive production of hidden-charm exotic states, including $X(3872)$, $Z_c$, $Z_{cs}$ and the pentaquark $P_c$ 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 have hadronic molecular structure as their main components. In order to give 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 the exotic hadrons. The estimates for the $X(3872)$ and $Z_c(3900)^\pm$ are not in conflict with the upper limits measured at the COMPASS experiment for the exclusive photoproduction process. The results here indicate that the considered hidden-charm states can be copiously produced at the proposed electron-ion colliders EicC and US-EIC.