Possible structure of the newly found exotic state $\eta_1(1855)$

Recently, a hadronic state named $\eta_1(1855)$, about 1.86 GeV, was observed in the BESIII experiment. This finding has a peculiar interest due to its exotic quantum number $J^{PC}=1^{-+}$. In this paper, we examine the tetraquark interpretation for the structure of $\eta_1(1855)$ in the configurations of $[1_c]_{\bar{s}s}\otimes[1_c]_{\bar{q}q}$ and $[1_c]_{\bar{s}q}\otimes[1_c]_{\bar{s}q}$, and perform a mass spectrum calculation in the framework of QCD sum rules. The results show that the observed $\eta_1(1855)$ could be embedded into the $[1_c]_{\bar{s}s}\otimes[1_c]_{\bar{q}q}$ configuration. The possible tetraquark and hybrid decay modes are analyzed, which are critical in decoding its inner structure. In the same way, we evaluate as well the $\bar{s}s\bar{s}s$ molecular state with $1^{-+}$ quantum number and find that there might exist two such ground states.