QCD sum rule study of topped mesons within heavy quark effective theory

Abstract

Motivated by the recent CMS observation of a near-threshold enhancement in top quark pair production, we investigate a novel class of hadronic systems containing a single top quark: the topped mesons ($t\bar{q}$, with $\bar q = \bar u, \bar d, \bar s$). In contrast to the extensively studied toponium ($t\bar{t}$) system, analyzed primarily within perturbative QCD, topped mesons offer a complementary nonperturbative probe of QCD dynamics in the heavy quark limit. These states are expected to exhibit longer lifetimes and narrower decay widths than toponium, as only a single top quark undergoes weak decay. We employ QCD sum rules within the framework of heavy quark effective theory to study the structure and mass spectrum of ground-state topped mesons. Our analysis predicts masses near 173.1 GeV, approximately 0.5-0.6 GeV above the top quark pole mass. Compared with singly topped baryons ($tqq$, with $q = u, d, s$) studied concurrently in [arXiv:2507.05895], topped mesons have a simpler quark composition and more favorable decay channels (a topped meson is anticipated to decay weakly into a $\Upsilon$ meson and a charmed meson), enhancing their potential for both theoretical analysis and experimental discovery.