Phenomenology of pseudotensor mesons and the pseudotensor glueball

TL;DR

This paper investigates the decay patterns of pseudotensor mesons and a pseudoscalar glueball, revealing potential anomalies in mixing angles and decay ratios that challenge conventional quark model assignments and suggest directions for future experimental research.

Contribution

It provides a detailed phenomenological analysis of pseudotensor mesons as quark-antiquark states and explores the decay signatures of a pseudoscalar glueball, highlighting discrepancies with experimental data and proposing new avenues for investigation.

Findings

Decays of $ ho_2(1670)$ and $K_2(1770)$ are well described by the model.

Large mixing angle (~$-42^ ext{o}$) is needed for isoscalar states to match data.

Predicted decay ratio for $ ext{eta}_2(1870)$ conflicts with recent reanalyses.

Abstract

We study the decays of the pseudotensor mesons $[ \pi_{2}(1670) , K_{2}(1770) , \eta_{2}(1645) , \eta_{2}(1870) ]$ interpreted as the ground-state nonet of $1^1 D_{2}$ $\bar{q}q$ states using interaction Lagrangians which couple them to pseudoscalar, vector, and tensor mesons. While the decays of $\pi_2 (1670)$ and $K_2 (1770)$ can be well described, the decays of the isoscalar states $\eta_2 (1645)$ and $\eta_2 (1870)$ can be brought in agreement with experimental data only if the mixing angle between nonstrange and strange states is surprisingly large (about $-42^\circ$, similar to the mixing in the pseudoscalar sector, in which the chiral anomaly is active). Such a large mixing angle is however at odd with all other conventional quark-antiquark nonets: if confirmed, a deeper study of its origin will be needed in the future. Moreover, the $\bar{q}q$ assignment of pseudotensor states predicts that the ratio $[ \eta_2 (1870) \rightarrow a_2 (1320) \pi]/[\eta_2 (1870) \rightarrow f_2 (1270) \eta]$ is about $23.5$. This value is in agreement with Barberis et al., ($20.4 \pm 6.6$), but disagrees with the recent reanalysis of Anisovich et al., ($1.7 \pm 0.4$). Future experimental studies are necessary to understand this puzzle. If Anisovich's value shall be confirmed, a simple nonet of pseudoscalar mesons cannot be able to describe data (different assignments and/or additional state, such as an hybrid state, will be needed). In the end, we also evaluate the decays of a pseudoscalar glueball into the aforementioned conventional $\bar{q}q$ states: a sizable decay into $K^\ast_2 (1430) K$ and $a_2 (1230) \pi$ together with a vanishing decay into pseudoscalar-vector pairs [such as $\rho(770) \pi$ and $K^\ast (892) K$] are expected. This information can be helpful in future studies of glueballs at the ongoing BESIII and at the future PANDA experiments.