provides a useful consistency check for other models such as the $^3P_0$ strong decay model [@Godfrey:1986wj; @Blundell:1995ev; @Blundell:1995au]. We therefore calculate the strong decay widths of excited charm-strange mesons using the pseudoscalar emission model in this spirit, that it is useful to compare the predictions of different models while acknowledging that some other models can be applied to a broader range of decays than the pseudoscalar emission model.

In this paper we study the decay widths of excited $D_s$ mesons and compare the predicted and measured properties of the $D_{s1}^*(2710)^\pm$ and $D_{sJ}^*(2860)^\pm$ states. In the following section we begin by giving the relativized quark model mass predictions for the charm-strange mesons [@godfrey85xj]. We then give the partial decay widths for the $2S$ and $1D$ charm-strange mesons calculated using the pseudoscalar emmission model. In section III we use these results to discuss the possible spectroscopic assignments of the $D_{s1}^*(2710)^\pm$ and $D_{sJ}^*(2860)^\pm$ states. We summarize our conclusions in section IV.

$2S$ and $1D$ $D_s$ Properties
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Spectroscopy
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We start with the mass predictions for the charm-strange mesons of the relativized quark model. The details of this model can be found in Ref. [@godfrey85xj] and [@Godfrey:1985by; @godfrey85b; @Godfrey:2004ya; @Godfrey:2005ww] and we do 