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 heavy quark effective theory. The pionic couplings between the lightest 1(-+) hybrid (g) and the lowest three heavy meson doublers are calculated with the light cone QCD sum rules. With SUf(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 around 300 MeV. We find that the dominant decay mode of the 1(-+) heavy hybrid is 1(-+) --> pi+1(+) where the 1(+) heavy meson belongs to the (1(+),2(+)) heavy meson doublet. Its branching ratio is about 80% so this mode can be used for the experimental search of the lowest heavy hybrid meson. [S0556-2821(99)01213-8].