Understanding the radiative decays of vector charmonia to light pseudoscalar mesons

Abstract

We show that the newly measured branching ratios of vector charmonia (J/ψ, ψ′ and ψ(3770)) into γP, where P stands for light pseudoscalar mesons π0, η, and η′, can be well understood in the framework of vector meson dominance (VMD) in association with the ηc–η(η′) mixings due to the axial gluonic anomaly. These two mechanisms behave differently in J/ψ and ψ′→γP. A coherent understanding of the branching ratio patterns observed in J/ψ(ψ′)→γP can be achieved by self-consistently including those transition mechanisms at hadronic level. The branching ratios for ψ(3770)→γP are predicted to be rather small.