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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Reviving the energy-dependent partonic structure of f0(980) via two-pion distribution amplitudes

Shan Cheng*, Ling-yun Dai, Jian-ming Shen, and Shu-lei Zhang†

  • School for Theoretical Physics, School of Physics and Electronics and Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of High-Energy Scale Physics and Applications, Hunan University, 410082 Changsha, China

  • *Contact author: scheng@hnu.edu.cn
  • †Contact author: zhangshulei@hnu.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. D 113, L031901 – Published 18 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/5vty-jdbh

Abstract

We present a novel framework for analyzing four-body semileptonic weak decays, performing the first high-twist analysis of the Ds→[ππ]S form factors using light cone distribution amplitudes for the isoscalar two-pion state (2πDAs). It is motivated by persistent tensions between phenomenological cascade analyses and QCD-based interpretations of the partonic structure of the f0 meson. Our study reveals that the twist-three 2π DAs incorporate an asymmetry in the partial-wave expansion, a feature absent in single f0 distribution amplitudes, that drives a substantial cancellation between twist-two and twist-three contributions to the form factors. As a result, the predicted decay rate falls significantly below the experimental value. These findings indicate that the isoscalar two-pion system near the charm scale is not primarily a qq¯ state, reviving the energy-dependent partonic structures of light scalar mesons by highlighting a fundamental limitation of the single-meson light cone distribution amplitude approach in describing such complex systems.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, L031901– Published 18 February, 2026
  • Received 28 September 2025
  • Accepted 2 February 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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