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Strong decays of the hidden-charm molecular pentaquarks

Jin-Cheng Deng1,*, Yong Ru1,*, Xin-Yue Wan1, Tai-Fu Feng1,2,3,4,†, and Bo Wang1,3,4,‡

  • *These authors equally contribute to this work.
  • †Contact author: fengtf@hbu.edu.cn
  • ‡Contact author: wangbo@hbu.edu.cn

Phys. Rev. D 113, 114011 – Published 5 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/4qws-btvg

Abstract

We investigate the strong decays of the recently observed hidden-charm pentaquarks PψN(4312), PψN(4440), and PψN(4457), as well as PψsΛ(4338) and PψsΛ(4459), within the molecular framework using the effective Lagrangian approach. We construct the effective Lagrangians describing the S-wave couplings between these pentaquarks and their constituent hadrons, namely ΣcD¯(*) and ΞcD¯(*), and determine the coupling constants via the residues of the scattering T-matrix at the bound-state poles. Our results show that the decay widths are sensitive to the cutoff parameters in the form factors, whereas the branching fractions exhibit only weak dependence. Using PψN(4312) to calibrate the cutoff range, we further explore the spin assignments of PψN(4440) and PψN(4457). Our calculations favor the assignment where the lower-mass state PψN(4440) carries higher spin J=3/2 and the higher-mass state PψN(4457) carries lower spin J=1/2. In addition, the experimental widths of PψsΛ(4338) and PψsΛ(4459) can both be well reproduced under the molecular interpretation. We look forward to future experimental analyses with more accumulated data to clarify whether the lineshape of PψsΛ(4459) contains contributions from both spin-1/2 and spin-3/2 states.

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