Three-gluon decays of radially excited quarkonia $\psi(2S)$ and $\Upsilon(2S)$ with both relativistic and QCD radiative corrections

Abstract

For the radially excited heavy quarkonia $V=\psi(2S)$ and $\Upsilon(2S)$, the nodal structure of the wave function renders the three-gluon decay $V\to ggg$ acutely sensitive to relativistic corrections, a longstanding challenge for reliable theoretical predictions. Within the Bethe-Salpeter formalism under the covariant instantaneous ansatz, we construct analytic harmonic-oscillator wave functions incorporating the $2S$ node and derive model-independent relations among the polarized decay widths from helicity-flip and phase-space symmetries. Motivated by the strikingly slow $\hat{q}^{2}$-order convergence driven by destructive interference at the node, we introduce a concise phenomenological treatment of the higher-order contributions that preserves the correct low-momentum limit. Including both relativistic and QCD radiative corrections, our predictions for $\Gamma(V\to ggg)$, $\Gamma(V\to e^{+}e^{-})$ and $R_{V}$ agree well with experiment, and the extracted $\beta_{V}$ lies at the lower end of typical phenomenological ranges, reflecting a more localized momentum-space wave function.