Recently experimentalists have discovered several charged charmonium-like hadrons $Z_c^+$ with unconventional quark content $bar ccbar d u$. We perform a search for $Z_c^+$ with mass below $4.2~$GeV in the channel $I^G(J^{PC})=1^+(1^{+-})$ using lattice QCD. The major challenge is presented by the two-meson states $J/psi, pi$, $psi_{2S}pi$, $psi_{1D}pi$, $Dbar D^*$, $D^*bar D^*$, $eta_crho$ that are inevitably present in this channel. The spectrum of eigenstates is extracted using a number of meson-meson and diquark-antidiquark interpolating fields. For our pion mass of 266~MeV we find all the expected two-meson states but no additional candidate for $Z_c^+$ below $4.2~$GeV. Possible reasons for not seeing an additional eigenstate related to $Z_c^+$ are discussed. We also illustrate how a simulation incorporating interpolators with a structure resembling low-lying two-mesons states seems to render a $Z_c^+$ candidate, which is however not robust after further two-meson states around $4.2~$GeV are implemented.
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