The $Omega_{c}$-puzzle solved by means of spectrum and strong decay amplitude predictions

The observation of five $$\varOmega _c $$= 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 $$\varOmega _{ c}$$ baryons and predictions for their $$\varXi _{ c}^{+}K^{-}$$ and $$\varXi _{ c}'^{+}K^{-}$$ decay amplitudes within an harmonic oscillator based model, we suggest a possible solution to the $$\varOmega _{c}$$ quantum number puzzle and we extend our mass and decay width predictions to the $$\varOmega _b$$ states. Finally, we discuss why the set of $$\varOmega _{ c(b)}$$ baryons is the most suitable environment to test the validity of three-quark and quark–diquark effective degrees of freedom.