New puzzle in charmonium decays

By analyzing existing data on pseudoscalar charmonium decays, we obtain the ratio of the branching fractions of $\eta_c'$ and $\eta_c$ decays into ten different final states with light hadrons. For the first time, we test the two existing theoretical predictions of these decays, and find that the experimental data are significantly different from both of them. The lack of observation of any decay mode with higher rate in $\eta_c'$ than in $\eta_c$ decays suggests very unusual decay dynamics in pseudoscalar charmonium decays to be identified. We also report the first model-independent evaluation of the partial width of $\eta_c'\to \gamma\gamma$ ($2.21_{-0.64}^{+0.88}$~keV) and improved determination of that of $\eta_c\to \gamma\gamma$ ($5.43_{-0.38}^{+0.41}$~keV). The latter shows a tension with the most recent lattice QCD calculation. Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Article funded by SCOAP3 and published under licence by Chinese Physical Society and the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Science and the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and IOP Publishing Ltd.