Molecular States and 1^-+ Exotic Mesons

Abstract

This work investigates whether the observed 1^-+ exotic mesons are molecular states. We first use a potential model to calculate the spectra and lifetimes of the f_0(980) and a_0(980), taken to be loosely bound molecular states of K Kbar, then apply the same scenario to the 1^-+ exotic states pi_1(1400) and pi_1(1600), assuming them to be pi eta(1295) and pi eta(1440) molecules respectively. We derive the effective potential in the framework of field theory at the hadronic level. Our results indicate that the present data on pi_1(1400) and pi_1(1600) rule out the specific molecular ansatz. We show that the lifetime of a loosely bound heavy-light molecule with enough angular momentum is fully determined by the lifetimes of its constituent mesons.