Eur. Phys. J. C (2018) 78:276
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-018-5690-7
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
The Z
c
(3900) peak does not come from the “triangle singularity”
Qin-Rong Gong
1
, Jing-Long Pang
1
, Yu-Fei Wang
1
, Han-Qing Zheng
1,2,a
1
Department of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
2
Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing 100871, China
Received: 2 October 2017 / Accepted: 5 March 2018
© The Author(s) 2018
Abstract We compare contributions from the triangle dia-
gram and the D
¯
D
∗
bubble chain with the processes of
e
+
e
−
→ J/ψ π
+
π
−
and e
+
e
−
→ (D
¯
D
∗
)
∓
π
±
.Byfit-
ting the J/ψπ maximum spectrum and the D
¯
D
∗
spectrum,
we find that the triangle diagram cannot explain the new
experimental results from BESIII Collaboration at center of
mass at 4.23 and 4.26 GeV, simultaneously. On the contrary,
the molecular assignment of Z
c
(3900) gives a much better
description.
1 Introduction
The charged charmonium-like state Z
c
(3900) was observed
in J/ψ π
±
mass spectrum by BES III Collaboration in
e
+
e
−
→ J /ψπ π process [1], and confirmed by Belle [2]
and CLEO [3] Collaborations in the same processes. After-
wards, it was also observed in the (D
¯
D
∗
)
±
invariant mass
spectrum in the process of e
+
e
−
→ D
¯
D
∗
π
∓
, and the quan-
tum number of Z
c
(3900) was determined to be I(J
P
) =
1(1
+
) by angular distribution analysis of the π Z
c
(3900) sys-
tem [4]. The experimental discovery has stimulated a lot of
discussion because of the unique nature of Z
c
(3900),asit
could be (together with Z
b
) an unambiguous candidate of the
long wished-for tetra-quark state.
In a recent paper [5], we have made a detailed comparison
between the D
¯
D
∗
molecule picture and the “elementary” pic-
ture, and we concluded that Z
c
(3900) is of D
¯
D
∗
molecular
nature, using the pole counting method [6,7].
However, there is also found in the literature another pos-
sible mechanism, called the anomalous triangle singularity
(ATS), to explain the singularity structure at Z
c
(3900).ATS
refers to a branch cut in a three-point loop function other than
the normal threshold. The study of ATS can be traced back to
about 60 years ago. In Ref. [8] Mandelstam worked out the
ATS branch point and discussed its effects on the deuteron
a
e-mail: zhenghq@pku.edu.cn
electromagnetism form factor, and in Ref. [9] the Landau
equations were used to analyze ATS in triangle diagrams.
Extensive studies on the triangle singularity using dispersion
techniques can also be found in Refs. [10–15]. Especially in
the paper by Lucha, Melikhov and Simula of Refs. [10–15],
a detailed dispersive analysis is given on different variables.
Some similar analyses of triangle singularity based on the
non-relativistic expression can be found in Ref. [16].
ATS has attracted renewed interests, recently, because it
may contribute to peaks in some certain invariant-mass spec-
tra. In other words, some so-called “exotic hadron states”
could be just the ATS peak rather than real particles; or even
if real exotic hadron states exist, there may be some non-
negligible contributions from ATS. For example, it is sug-
gested in Refs. [17–19] that the singularity structure of the
triangle diagram (see Fig. 1), which contains both the nor-
mal threshold effect and the anomalous threshold effect, may
lead to the peak at 3900 MeV. In Refs. [20,21] it is empha-
sized that the anomalous triangle singularity may have signif-
icant impact in understanding the nature of the near-threshold
state. The possible impact of triangle singularity on Z
c
(3900)
has also been discussed in Refs. [22].
This paper is devoted to the study of the triangle diagram
contribution to the Z
c
(3900) peak. In Sect. 2 we give a ped-
agogical analysis of general three-point loop functions using
the Feynman parameter representation that can be found in
most textbooks, and we discuss the properties of the ATS. In
Sect. 3 we calculate the triangle diagram corresponding to
e
+
e
−
→ J/ψπ
+
π
−
and e
+
e
−
→ (D
¯
D
∗
)
∓
π
±
processes
and fit the experimental data to test whether the Z
c
(3900)
peak comes from the triangle diagram. In Sect. 4 the major
conclusion of the present paper is reached: basically, it is
found that the new experimental results from Refs. [23,24]
play a crucial role in clarifying the issue of the triangle dia-
gram contribution: the experimental data indicate that the
peak at 4.23 GeV is higher than that at 4.26 GeV, whereas
the triangle diagram predicts an opposite behavior. Our anal-
ysis reveals that the Z
c
(3900) peak cannot be explained from
123