Experimentally several charged axial-vector hidden-charm states were reported. Within the framework of the color-magnetic interaction, we have systematically considered the mass spectrum of the hidden-charm and hidden-bottom tetraquark states. It is impossible to accommodate all of the three charged states $Z_c(3900)$, $Z_c(4025)$, and $Z_c(4200)$ within the axial-vector tetraquark spectrum simultaneously. Not all of these three states are tetraquark candidates. Moreover, the eigenvector of the chromomagnetic interaction contains valuable information of the decay pattern of the tetraquark states. The dominant decay mode of the lowest axial-vector tetraquark state is $J/\psi \pi$ while its $D^{*}\overline{D}$ and ${\overline{D}}^{*}{D}^{*}$ modes are strongly suppressed, which is in contrast with the fact that the dominant decay mode of $Z_c(3900)$ and $Z_c(4025)$ is $\overline{D}{D}^{*}$ and ${\overline{D}}^{*}{D}^{*}$, respectively. We emphasize that all the available experimental information indicates that $Z_c(4200)$ is a very promising candidate of the lowest axial-vector hidden-charm tetraquark state.

• Received 19 August 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.90.094031