The existence of exotic hadrons — a type of matter that cannot be classified within the traditional quark model - has been confirmed in a forthcoming article prepared by the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) Collaboration at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.
Quarks are hard, point-like objects found within the nucleus of an atom. When quarks combine in threes, they form compound particles known as baryons. Protons are probably the best-known baryons. Sometimes, quarks interact with corresponding anti-particles (i.e., anti-quarks), which have the same mass but opposite charges. When this happens, they form mesons. These compounds often turn up in the decay of heavy man-made particles, such as those in particle accelerators, nuclear reactors, and cosmic rays.