Recent COMPASS results and future prospects for ALICE

The COMPASS Collaboration has accumulated the world’s highest statistics on the reaction π− p → π+π−π− p at 190 GeV/c. The results, presented in Section 1, show that a new state JPC= 1++ state never reported before, the a1(1420), decaying to f0(980)π followed by f0(980) → ππ. In addition, the Collaboration reports an exotic JPC= 1−+ state, the π1(1600), which cannot be a quarkonium. Both states are likely to be a tetra-quark, i.e. qq¯+qq¯or a gluonic hybrid, a qq¯object with an excited gluon inside it.Section 2 is devoted to a brief discussion of the central production of resonances, which is being investigated by both COMPASS and ALICE collaborations. However, the results are not yet released, so it is limited to a broad discussion of the central production, with emphasis on different analyses dictated by differences in the experimental setup.