We report the first evidence for $X(3872)$ production in two-photon interactions by tagging either the electron or the positron in the final state, exploring the highly virtual photon region. The search is performed in $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to e^{+}{e}^{-}J/\psi {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}$, using $825{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ of data collected by the Belle detector operated at the KEKB $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ collider. We observe three $X(3872)$ candidates, where the expected background is $0.11\pm 0.10$ events, with a significance of $3.2\sigma$. We obtain an estimated value for ${\tilde{\mathrm{\Gamma }}}_{\gamma \gamma }\mathcal{B}\mathbf{(}X(3872)\to J/\psi {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}\mathbf{)}$ assuming the $Q^2$ dependence predicted by a $c\overline{c}$ meson model, where $-Q^2$ is the invariant mass squared of the virtual photon. No $X(3915)\to J/\psi {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}$ candidates are found.

• Received 11 July 2020
• Revised 14 December 2020
• Accepted 22 February 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.122001

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Published by the American Physical Society