Strong and electromagnetic decays of the light scalar mesons interpreted as tetraquark states

The study of two-pseudoscalar and two-photon decays for the scalar meson nonet below 1 GeV is performed within an effective approach in which the scalar resonances are described as (Jaffe's) tetraquark states. The dominant (fall apart decay) and the subdominant (one transverse gluon as intermediate state) decay amplitudes are systematically taken into account. The latter improves the agreement with the experimental data. Possible scenarios concerning the scalar-isoscalar mixing are discussed.