$P_{c}(4457) \to P_{c}(4312) \pi/\gamma$ in the molecular picture

TL;DR

This paper investigates the decay modes of the pentaquark state $P_{c}(4457)$ into $P_{c}(4312)$ via pion and photon emission, using an effective Lagrangian approach within the molecular picture, and estimates decay widths and ratios.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the decay mechanisms of $P_{c}(4457)$ assuming a molecular structure, and predicts decay widths and ratios to test this hypothesis.

Findings

Decay widths are approximately 100 keV for pion and 1 keV for photon channels.

The decay width ratio mirrors the $D^{ ext{*}} o D ext{(pi)}$ and $D^{ ext{*}} o D ext{(gamma)}$ ratio.

Spin of $P_{c}(4457)$ cannot be determined from these decay modes.

Abstract

The three pentaquark states, $P_{c}(4312)$, $P_{c}(4440)$, and $P_{c}(4457)$, discovered by the LHCb Collaboration in 2019, can be nicely arranged into a multiplet of $\bar{D}^{(\ast)}\Sigma_{c}^{(\ast)}$ of seven molecules dictated by heavy quark spin symmetry. In this work we employ the effective Lagrangian approach to investigate the two decay modes of $P_{c}(4457)$, $P_{c}(4457) \to P_{c}(4312) \pi$ and $P_{c}(4457) \to P_{c}(4312) \gamma$, via the triangle mechanism, assuming that $P_{c}(4457)$ and $P_{c}(4312)$ are $\bar{D}^{\ast}\Sigma_{c}$ and $\bar{D}\Sigma_{c}$ bound states but the spin of $P_{c}(4457)$ can be either 1/2 or 3/2. Our results show that the spin of $P_{c}(4457)$ can not be discriminated through these two decay modes. The decay widths of $P_{c}(4457) \to P_{c}(4312) \pi$ and $P_{c}(4457) \to P_{c}(4312) \gamma$ are estimated to be of order of 100 keV and 1 keV, respectively. The ratio of the partial decay widths of $P_{c}(4457) \to P_{c}(4312) \pi$ to $P_{c}(4457) \to P_{c}(4312) \gamma$ is similar to the ratio of $D^{\ast}\to D\pi$ to $D^{\ast}\to D\gamma$, which could be used to check the molecular nature of $P_{c}(4457)$ and $P_{c}(4312)$ if they can be observed in the future.