Selected open-charm decays of the narrow Pc states: Quark-interchange predictions and pion-exchange sensitivity
Abstract
The proximity of the narrow Pc(4312), Pc(4440), and Pc(4457) structures to the ΣcD̅(*) thresholds motivates their interpretation as hadronic molecules. We treat the Pc(4312) as an S-wave ΣcD̅ state with JP=1/2- and examine both JP=1/2- and 3/2- ΣcD̅* assignments for each heavier peak. The selected S-wave open-charm transitions to ΛcD̅(*) are calculated at Born order in the quark-interchange model, including the prior and post rearrangement diagrams and their color, flavor, spin, and spatial matrix elements. Across the input variations considered, the quark-interchange widths robustly favor ΛcD̅* over ΛcD̅ for every JP=1/2- assignment. At either heavier peak mass, the ΛcD̅* width for JP=3/2- is suppressed by approximately one order of magnitude relative to JP=1/2-, providing a potential decay-based discriminator of the spin assignments. The large channel hierarchies arise from spatial overlaps and interference between spin-independent and hyperfine contributions and are not universal heavy-quark-spin-symmetry ratios. We also explore a retarded one-pion-exchange transition at first Born order. It affects Pc(4312)→ΛcD̅* most strongly, while the coherent widths remain sensitive to the cutoff, energy-transfer prescription, short-distance subtraction, and unresolved relative matching sign. The quark-interchange hierarchies are therefore the central predictions, whereas the pion-exchange results quantify matching sensitivity. Measurements of the ΛcD̅* modes can directly test these patterns.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{patel2026selected,
title = {{Selected open-charm decays of the narrow \(P_c\) states: Quark-interchange predictions and pion-exchange sensitivity}},
author = {Vandan Patel and Ajay Kumar Rai},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.11568},
eprint = {2610.11568},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11568},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Selected open-charm decays of the narrow P_c states: Quark-interchange predictions and pion-exchange sensitivity
AU - Vandan Patel
AU - Ajay Kumar Rai
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/08
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.11568
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11568
AB - The proximity of the narrow P_c(4312), P_c(4440), and P_c(4457) structures to the Σ_cD̅^(*) thresholds motivates their interpretation as hadronic molecules. We treat the P_c(4312) as an S-wave Σ_cD̅ state with J^P=1/2^- and examine both J^P=1/2^- and 3/2^- Σ_cD̅^* assignments for each heavier peak. The selected S-wave open-charm transitions to Λ_cD̅^(*) are calculated at Born order in the quark-interchange model, including the prior and post rearrangement diagrams and their color, flavor, spin, and spatial matrix elements. Across the input variations considered, the quark-interchange widths robustly favor Λ_cD̅^* over Λ_cD̅ for every J^P=1/2^- assignment. At either heavier peak mass, the Λ_cD̅^* width for J^P=3/2^- is suppressed by approximately one order of magnitude relative to J^P=1/2^-, providing a potential decay-based discriminator of the spin assignments. The large channel hierarchies arise from spatial overlaps and interference between spin-independent and hyperfine contributions and are not universal heavy-quark-spin-symmetry ratios. We also explore a retarded one-pion-exchange transition at first Born order. It affects P_c(4312)→Λ_cD̅^* most strongly, while the coherent widths remain sensitive to the cutoff, energy-transfer prescription, short-distance subtraction, and unresolved relative matching sign. The quark-interchange hierarchies are therefore the central predictions, whereas the pion-exchange results quantify matching sensitivity. Measurements of the Λ_cD̅^* modes can directly test these patterns.
ER -