In this work we construct 36 tetraquark configurations for the $1S$-, $1P$-, and $2S$-wave states, and make a prediction of the mass spectrum for the tetraquark $ss\bar{ s}\bar{ s}$ system in the framework of a nonrelativistic potential quark model without the diquark-antidiquark approximation. The model parameters are well determined by our previous study of the strangeonium spectrum. We find that the resonances $f_0(2200)$ and $f_2(2340)$ may favor the assignments of ground states $T_{ (ss\bar{ s}\bar{ s})0^{ ++}}(2218)$ and $T_{ (ss\bar{ s}\bar{ s})2^{ ++}}(2378)$, respectively, and the newly observed $X(2500)$ at BESIII may be a candidate of the lowest mass $1P$-wave $0^{ -+}$ state $T_{ (ss\bar{ s}\bar{ s})0^{ -+}}(2481)$. Signals for the other $0^{ ++}$ ground state $T_{ (ss\bar{ s}\bar{ s})0^{ ++}}(2440)$ may also have been observed in the $\phi\phi$ invariant mass spectrum in $J/\psi\to\gamma\phi\phi$ at BESIII. The masses of the $J^{ PC}=1^{ --}$ $T_{ ss\bar{ s}\bar{ s}}$ states are predicted to be in the range of $\sim 2.44-2.99$ GeV, which indicates that the $\phi(2170)$ resonance may not be a good candidate of the $T_{ ss\bar{ s}\bar{ s}}$ state. This study may provide a useful guidance for searching for the $T_{ ss\bar{ s}\bar{ s}}$ states in experiments.
Categories: hep-ph hep-ex