We investigate the production and absorption of $Z_b(10610)$ and $Z_b^{\prime }(10650)$ states in a hadronic medium, via the processes ${\overline{B}}^{(*)}{B}^{(*)}\to \pi Z_b^{(\prime )}$ and the corresponding inverses reactions. We use effective field Lagrangians based on an $SU(4)$ extension of the hidden gauge formalism to account for the couplings between light and heavy mesons, and a phenomenological Lagrangian involving the $B^{*}{B}^{(*)}{Z}_b^{(\prime )}$ vertices. The absorption cross sections are found to be much larger than the production ones.

• Received 1 November 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.95.096002