HOW TO SEARCH FOR PENTAQUARKS IN HIGH-ENERGY HADRONIC-INTERACTIONS

The strange-anticharmed Pentaquark is a <uud(c)over bar s> or <udd(c)o ver bar s> five-quark baryon that is expected to be either a narrow re sonance, or possibly even stable against strong and electromagnetic de cay. We describe this hyperon here, its structure, binding energy and lifetime, resonance width, production mechanisms, production cross sec tions, and decay modes. We describe techniques to reduce backgrounds i n search experiments and to optimize the conditions for Pentaquark obs ervation. Possibilities for enhancing the signal over background in Pe ntaquark searches are investigated by examining predictions for detail ed momentum and angular distributions in multiparticle final states. W e consider a loosely bound Ds-N molecule and also a strongly-bound fiv e-quark system. Fermilab E791 data, currently being analyzed, may have marginal statistics for showing definitive signals. Future experiment s in the spirit of the recent CHARM2000 workshop, such as FNAL E781 an d CERN COMPASS with 10(6)-10(7) reconstructed charmed baryon events, s hould have sensitivity to determine whether or not the Pentaquark exis ts.