Hidden-Charm Tetraquarks and Charged Zc States

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the mass spectrum of hidden-charm tetraquarks using the color-magnetic interaction, concluding that not all observed charged states fit the tetraquark model and identifying $Z_c(4200)$ as a promising candidate.

Contribution

It systematically studies the tetraquark mass spectrum and decay patterns, providing insights into which charged states are consistent with the tetraquark interpretation.

Findings

$Z_c(4200)$ is a promising tetraquark candidate.

Not all charged states $Z_c(3900)$, $Z_c(4025)$, and $Z_c(4200)$ fit the tetraquark spectrum.

Decay patterns differ from experimental observations for some states.

Abstract

Experimentally several charged axial-vector hidden-charm states were reported. Within the framework of the color-magnetic interaction, we have systematically considered the mass spectrum of the hidden-charm and hidden-bottom tetraquark states. It is impossible to accommodate all the three charged states $Z_c(3900)$, $Z_c(4025)$ and $Z_c(4200)$ within the axial vector tetraquark spectrum simultaneously. Not all these three states are tetraquark candidates. Moreover, the eigenvector of the chromomagnetic interaction contains valuable information of the decay pattern of the tetraquark states. The dominant decay mode of the lowest axial vector tetraquark state is $J/\psi \pi$ while its $D^*\bar{D}$ and $\bar{D}^*D^*$ modes are strongly suppressed, which is in contrast with the fact that the dominant decay mode of $Z_c(3900)$ and $Z_c(4025)$ is $\bar{D}D^*$ and $\bar{D}^*D^*$ respectively. We emphasize that all the available experimental information indicates that $Z_c(4200)$ is a very promising candidate of the lowest axial vector hidden-charm tetraquark state.