Search

The observation of five $$\varOmega _c $$Ωc= ssc states by LHCb [Aaij et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 182001 (2017)] and the confirmation of four of them by Belle [Yelton et al. Phys. Rev. D 97, 051102 (2018)], may represent an important milestone in our understanding of the quark organization inside hadrons. By providing results for the spectrum of $$\varOmega _{ c}$$Ωc baryons and predictions for their $$\varXi _{ c}^{+}K^{-}$$Ξc+K- and $$\varXi _{ c}'^{+}K^{-}$$Ξc′+K- decay amplitudes within an harmonic oscillator based model, we suggest a possible solution to the $$\varOmega _{c}$$Ωc quantum number puzzle and we extend our mass and decay width predictions to the $$\varOmega _b$$Ωb states. Finally, we discuss why the set of $$\varOmega _{ c(b)}$$Ωc(b) baryons is the most suitable environment to test the validity of three-quark and quark–diquark effective degrees of freedom.