On the nature of the $\pi_2(1880)

Abstract

The strong decays of the ${\pi }_2(1880)$ as the $2^1{D}_2$ quark-antiquark state are investigated in the ${}^3{P}_0$ model and the flux-tube model, respectively. The results are similar in the two models. It is found that the decay patterns of the conventional $2^1{D}_2$ meson and the $2^{-+}$ light hybrid are very different, and the experimental evidence for the ${\pi }_2(1880)$ is consistent with it being the conventional $2^1{D}_2$ meson rather than the $2^{-+}$ light hybrid. The possibility of the ${\pi }_2(1880)$ being a mixture of the conventional $q\bar{q}$ and the hybrid is discussed.

Comments: 11 pages, 3 figures, version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D