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  • Open Access

Understanding the enhanced ϕη′ decay mode of the ϕ(2170) through strange-meson loops

Qin-Song Zhou1,2,3,4, Jun-Zhang Wang5,*, and Dan Guo6,†

  • 1School of Physical Science and Technology, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010021, People’s Republic of China
  • 2Research Center for Quantum Physics and Technologies, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010021, People’s Republic of China
  • 3Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Microscale Physics and Atomic Manufacturing, Hohhot 010021, People’s Republic of China
  • 4Lanzhou Center for Theoretical Physics, Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics of Gansu Province, Key Laboratory of Quantum Theory and Applications of MoE, Gansu Provincial Research Center for Basic Disciplines of Quantum Physics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, People’s Republic of China
  • 5Department of Physics and Chongqing Key Laboratory for Strongly Coupled Physics, Chongqing University, Chongqing 401331, People’s Republic of China
  • 6Key Laboratory for Microstructural Material Physics of Hebei Province, School of Science, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, People’s Republic of China

  • *Contact author: wangjzh@cqu.edu.cn
  • †Contact author: guod13@ysu.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. D 114, 074012 – Published 5 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/h4mj-2fj9

Abstract

The nature of the strangeoniumlike ϕ(2170) remains controversial. Recent measurements of e+e−→ϕη(′) reveal a striking puzzle: a broad ϕ(2170)-like structure appears in the ϕη′ channel but not in ϕη, despite the strong phase-space suppression of ϕη′. We investigate this unexpectedly large ϕη′ decay fraction within the excited-strangeonium assignment. A combined analysis of the e+e−→ϕη and e+e−→ϕη′ cross sections is performed by including short-distance amplitudes from vacuum quark-pair creation and long-distance transitions mediated by strange-meson loops. The short-distance mechanism predicts too small a ϕη′/ϕη strength ratio to explain the data. In contrast, strange-meson loops naturally enhance this ratio because the SU(3)-flavor factor at the K(*)K(*)η(′) vertex suppresses the transition to ϕη relative to ϕη′. The resulting overall description of both cross sections supports an important role for long-distance dynamics in hidden-strangeness decays of excited-vector strangeonia. More intriguingly, although the excited-strangeonium contributions have been included, the current high-precision ϕη data still favor the existence of an extra narrow vector state near 2.15 GeV with a width of about 25 MeV. If confirmed, it would be a promising exotic-hadron candidate in the light-vector sector. Furthermore, we test Γ(Y→ϕη)/Γ(Y→ϕη′)=0.25, 1, and 4 as fit inputs and obtain similarly good descriptions of the cross sections in all three cases. The present data therefore do not allow this ratio to discriminate among different internal configurations of the narrow state.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 074012– Published 5 October, 2026
  • Received 17 August 2026
  • Accepted 21 September 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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