Strong and radiative decays of the D ^*_s0 (2317) and D_s1(2460)

Abstract

Since their discovery in 2003, the open charm states D ^* _s0 and D _s1(2460) provide a challenge to the conventional quark model. In recent years, theoretical evidence has been accumulated for both states in favor of a predominantly DK and D^*K molecular nature, respectively. However, a direct experimental proof of this hypothesis still needs to be found. Since radiative decays are generally believed to be sensitive to the inner structure of the decaying particles, we study in this work the radiative and strong decays of both the D ^* _s0 (2317) and D _s1(2460), as well as of their counterparts in the bottom sector. While the strong decays are indeed strongly enhanced for molecular states, the radiative decays are of similar order of magnitude in different pictures. Thus, the experimental observable that allows one to conclusively quantify the molecular components of the D ^* _s0 (2317) and D _s1(2460) is the hadronic width, and not the radiative one, in contradistinction to common belief. We also find that radiative decays of the sibling states in the bottom sector are significantly more frequent than the hadronic ones. Based on this, we identify their most promising discovery channels.