Shedding light on charmonium

Abstract

We investigate E1 radiative transitions within charmonium in a relativistic approach based on light-front QCD. In quantum field theory, two sets of processes are pure E1: χ c 0 → J / ψ γ ( ψ → χ c 0 γ ) and h c → η c γ ( η c ′ → h c γ ), both involving the P -wave charmonia. We compute the E1 radiative decay widths as well as the corresponding transition form factors of various processes including those involving 2 P states. These observables provide an access to the microscopic structures of the P -wave charmonium. We show that our parameter-free predictions are in excellent agreement with the experimental measurements as well as lattice simulations whenever available. Published by the American Physical Society 2024