Systematic study of the singularity mechanism in heavy quarkonium decays

Abstract

We investigate in detail the role of heavy meson loops in the transition from $J^{PC}=1^{--}$ sources to candidates for QCD "exotics", such as $Z_c(3900)$, $Z_b(10610)$ and $Z_b^{\prime }(10650)$. We demonstrate that, if a vector state strongly couples to a heavy meson pair in an $S$--wave and this system decays to another heavy meson pair (e.g. via pion emission), again in an $S$-wave, the pertinent diagrams get enhanced significantly, if the intermediate states are (near) on--shell and have small relative momenta. In a limited kinematic range this mechanism generates "singularity regions" that lead to the creation of a large number of low energy heavy meson pairs, providing an ideal environment for the formation of hadron-hadron bound states or resonances. For instance, we predict that the signals for $Z_b$ and $Z_b^{\prime }$ should be a lot stronger in $\hat{I}\yen (6S)$ decays due to this mechanism, if these states are indeed hadron-hadron resonances. The findings of this work should be valuable for deepening our understanding of the nature of the mentioned states.

6 pages, 8 eps figures, version to appear in Phys.Lett.B