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: $\chi_{c0} \to J/\psi \gamma$ ($\psi\to \chi_{c0}\gamma$) and $h_c \to \eta_c\gamma$ ($\eta_c' \to h_c\gamma$), 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 $2P$ 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.