Hadronic D decays involving scalar mesons -: art. no. 034024

The nonleptonic weak decays of charmed mesons into a scalar meson and a pseudoscalar meson are studied. The scalar mesons under consideration are sigma [or f(0)(600)], kappa, f(0)(980), a(0)(980) and K-0*(1430). A consistent picture provided by the data suggests that the light scalars below or near 1 GeV form an SU(3) flavor nonet and are predominately the q(2)(1) over bar (2) states, while the scalar mesons above 1 GeV can be described as a q (q) over bar nonet. Hence, we designate q(2)(q) over bar (2) to sigma, kappa, a(0)(980), f(0)(980) and q (q) over bar to K-0*. Sizable weak annihilation contributions induced from final-state interactions are essential for understanding the data. Except for the Cabibbo doubly suppressed channel D+-->f(0)K(+), the data of D-->sigmapi, f(0)pi, f(0)K, K-0*pi can be accommodated in the generalized factorization approach. However, the predicted rates for D-->a(0)pi, a(0)K are too small by one to two orders of magnitude when compared with the preliminary measurements. Whether or not one can differentiate between the two-quark and four-quark pictures for the f(0)(980) produced in the hadronic charm decays depends on the isoscalar f(0)-sigma mixing angle in the q (q) over bar model.