Determination of the pole position of the lightest hybrid meson candidate

Abstract

Mapping states with explicit gluonic degrees of freedom in the light sector is a challenge, and has led to controversies in the past. In particular, the experiments have reported two different hybrid candidates with spin-exotic signature, pi¬_1(1400) and pi_1 (1600), which couple separately to eta pi and eta'pi. This picture is not compatible with recent Lattice QCD estimates for hybrid states, nor with most phenomenological models. We consider the recent partial wave analysis of the eta^(')pi system by the COMPASS Collaboration. We fit the extracted intensities and phases with a coupled-channel amplitude that enforces the unitarity and analyticity of the S matrix. We provide a robust extraction of a single exotic pi_1 resonant pole, with mass and width 1564 +/- 24 +/- 86 and 492 +/- 54 +/- 102 MeV, which couples to both eta^(')pi channels. We find no evidence for a second exotic state. We also provide the resonance parameters of the a_2 (1320) and a_2^' (1700).