Revealing the mystery of the double charm tetraquark in $pp$ collision

A novel approach is proposed to probe the nature of the double charm tetraquark through the measurement of production asymmetry between $T_{\bar{c}\bar{c}}^-$ and $T_{cc}^+$ in $pp$ collisions. When comparing two theoretical pictures, the compact tetraquark and molecular pictures, we find that the compact tetraquark picture exhibits a significantly larger production asymmetry and an order of magnitude lower total cross section compared to the molecular picture, enabling the unambiguous determination of the tetraquark's internal structure. Additionally, distinctive differences in the transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T}$) and rapidity ($y$) distributions of $T_{\bar{c}\bar{c}}^-$ and $T_{cc}^+$ cross sections emerge, particularly at $p_\mathrm{T}\approx 2~\mathrm{GeV}$ and $y\approx \pm 6$. The difference between particles and antiparticles in a large rapidity region is attributed to the behavior of the residual $ud$ diquarks within the proton. Our work extends to the exploration of other double heavy tetraquark candidates, offering a versatile approach to advance our understanding of exotic hadronic states in particle physics.