The strong decays of <Emphasis Type="Italic">X</Emphasis>(3940) and <Emphasis Type="Italic">X</Emphasis>(4160)

The new mesons X(3940) and X(4160) have been found by Belle Collaboration in the processes \(e^+e^-\rightarrow J/\psi D^{(*)}{\bar{D}}^{(*)}\). Considering X(3940) and X(4160) as \(\eta _c(3S)\) and \(\eta _c(4S)\) states, the two-body open charm OZI-allowed strong decay of \(\eta _c(3S)\) and \(\eta _c(4S)\) are studied by the improved Bethe–Salpeter method combined with the \(^3P_0\) model. The strong decay width of \(\eta _c(3S)\) is \(\Gamma _{\eta _c(3S)}=(33.5^{+18.4}_{-15.3})\) MeV, which is close to the result of X(3940); therefore, \(\eta _c(3S)\) is a good candidate of X(3940). The strong decay width of \(\eta _c(4S)\) is \(\Gamma _{\eta _c(4S)}=(69.9^{+22.4}_{-21.1})\) MeV, considering the errors of the results, it is close to the lower limit of X(4160). But the ratio of the decay width \(\frac{\Gamma (D{\bar{D}}^*)}{\Gamma (D^*{\bar{D}}^*)}\) of \(\eta _c(4S)\) is larger than the experimental data of X(4160). According to the above analysis, \(\eta _c(4S)\) is not the candidate of X(4160), and more investigations of X(4160) is needed.