Multiquark correlations in light mesons and baryons from holographic QCD

A hadron's multiquark content reflects itself in the quark composition of the interpolator with which it has maximal overlap. The AdS/CFT dictionary translates the anomalous dimension of this interpolator into a mass correction for the corresponding dual mode. Hence such bulk-mass corrections can carry holographic information on multiquark correlations. Two prominent examples are studied by implementing this robust and universal mechanism into AdS/QCD gravity duals. In the baryon sector bulk-mass corrections are used to describe systematic good (i.e. maximally attractive) diquark effects. The baryon sizes are predicted to decrease with increasing good-diquark content, and the masses of all 48 observed light-quark baryon states are reproduced with unprecedented accuracy. Our approach further provides the first holographic description of a dominant tetraquark component in the lowest-lying scalar mesons. The tetraquark ground state emerges naturally as the lightest scalar nonet whereas higher excitations become heavier than their quark--antiquark counterparts and are thus likely to dissolve into the multiparticle continuum.