Possible signatures for tetraquarks from the decays of $a_0(980)$, $a_0(1450)$

Abstract

Based on the recent proposal for the tetraquarks with the mixing scheme, we investigate fall-apart decays of $a_0(980), a_0(1450)$ into two lowest-lying mesons. This mixing scheme suggests that $a_0(980)$ and $a_0(1450)$ are the tetraquarks with the mixtures of two spin configurations of diquark and antidiquark. Due to the relative sign differences in the mixtures, the couplings of fall-apart decays into two mesons are strongly enhanced for $a_0(980)$ but suppressed for $a_0(1450)$. We report that this expectation is supported by their experimental decays. In particular, the ratios of the associated partial decay widths, which depend on some kinematical factors and the couplings, are found to be around $\Gamma [a_0(980)\rightarrow \pi \eta]/\Gamma [a_0(1450)\rightarrow \pi \eta] = 2.51-2.54$, $\Gamma [a_0(980)\rightarrow K\bar{K}]/\Gamma [a_0(1450)\rightarrow K\bar{K}] = 0.52-0.89$, which seems to agree with the experimental ratios reasonably well. This agreement can be interpreted as the tetraquark signatures for $a_0(980), a_0(1450)$.