The masses and decay widths of heavy hybrid mesons

Abstract

We first derive the mass sum rules for the heavy hybrid mesons to obtain the binding energy and decay constants in the leading order of HQET. The pionic couplings between the lightest $1^{-+}$ hybrid $(Q\bar q g)$ and the lowest three heavy meson doublets are calculated with the light cone QCD sum rules. With $SU_f (3)$ flavor symmetry we calculate the widths for all the possible two-body decay processes with a Goldstone boson in the final state. The total width of the $1^{-+}$ hybrid is estimated to be 300 MeV. We find the dominant decay mode of the $1^{-+}$ hybrid is $1^{-+}\to \pi + 1^+$ where the $1^+$ heavy meson belongs to the $(1^+,2^+)$ doublet. Its branching ratio is about 80% so this mode can be used for the experimental search of the lowest heavy hybrid meson.