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Near-threshold dynamics of χc1(3872) and Tcc+(3875) states via effective range expansion and Monte Carlo uncertainty propagation

A. A. Atangana Likéné*

A. Franck Rothen

J. M. Ema'a Ema'a

P. Pradyun Hebbar

Saralees Nadarajah

Tobias Golling

G. H. Ben-Bolie

  • Department of Particle Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Geneva, P.O. Box 1205 Geneva, Switzerland and Laboratory of Nuclear, Atomic and Molecular Physics, University of Yaoundé I, P.O. Box 812 Yaoundé, Cameroon

  • Department of Particle Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Geneva, P.O. Box 1205 Geneva, Switzerland

  • Department of Physics, Bertoua Higher Teacher's Training College, University of Bertoua, P.O. Box 55 Bertoua, Cameroon

  • Department of Particle Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Geneva, P.O. Box 1205 Geneva, Switzerland

  • Department of Particle Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Geneva, P.O. Box 1205 Geneva, Switzerland

  • *Contact author: andre.atangana@etu.unige.ch; aandreaime@yahoo.fr

Phys. Rev. C 114, 045208 – Published 27 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/gck5-f5j5

Abstract

We investigate the internal structure of two exotic tetraquark candidates, χc1(3872) and Tcc+(3875), whose masses lie within 1MeV of the D0D¯*0 and D0D*+ thresholds, respectively. Using the effective-range expansion (ERE) supplemented by resonance compositeness relations on the second Riemann sheet, we extract scattering lengths a and effective ranges r directly from the experimental masses and widths and quantify the DD* molecular content through partial compositeness coefficients Xj. A two-channel framework couples each state's inelastic detection channel (J/ψππ; D0D0π+) to the near-threshold molecular channel. Full Monte Carlo uncertainty propagation with N=50000 Gaussian samples yields asymmetric 68% confidence intervals for all observables. We find large negative scattering lengths a=−8.49−1.05+0.93 fm for χc1(3872) and a=−14.57−1.66+1.70 fm for Tcc+, both far exceeding the natural hadronic scale ≈1/mπ and dominant molecular components X2>0.95 under full compositeness. The results are stable for total compositeness X∈[0.5,1.0], where 1−X represents an upper bound on any compact/CDD-pole contribution. In the present study, we go beyond the pole-position Castillejo-Dalitz-Dyson (CDD) criterion by explicitly constructing the inverse amplitude as an ERE background plus a scanned CDD pole term, finding no region of physically reasonable bare-state parameter space that reproduces the pole while leaving a natural background; we fully propagate the loop-function subtraction constant a(μg) as a Monte Carlo nuisance parameter jointly with the experimental mass and width, confirming it contributes a negligible (<0.01%) additional uncertainty; and we test robustness against an assumed correlation between MR and ΓR, finding all results stable over a broad range of correlation coefficients. We demonstrate analytically and numerically the scheme-independence of the compositeness coefficients, provide explicit derivations of all ERE formulas from the pole condition, clarify the analytic continuation procedure for closed channels, and compare our results quantitatively with independent ERE, effective-field theory, and other relevant studies. The Zc(3900) case is treated separately to show the breakdown of the two-channel approximation for above-threshold states. Graphical illustrations of the Monte Carlo distributions are included.

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