Global fits to moments of kinematic distributions measured in inclusive semileptonic $B\rightarrow X_c l ν_l$ enable the determination of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element $|V_{cb}|$ together with non-perturbative matrix elements of the heavy quark expansion. In current fits, only two distinct kinematic distributions are employed and, as a consequence, higher moments of these distributions need to be taken into account to extract the relevant non-perturbative matrix elements. The moments of a given distribution are highly correlated and experimental uncertainties increase for higher moments. To address these issues, Turczyk suggested the inclusion of the charged lepton forward-backward asymmetry $\mathcal{A}_{FB}$ in global fits, since it provides information on non-perturbative parameters beyond the commonly used moments.
It is possible to construct differences of partial moments of kinematic distributions, which can provide additional information on the non-perturbative parameters beyond $\mathcal{A}_{FB}$ and are studied in this work for the first time. Further, experimental cuts on the four-momentum transfer square are studied and are shown to preserve the shape of the angular distribution, in contrast to commonly used cuts on the lepton energy. Finally, the impact of final-state radiation and experimental lepton identification requirements on measurements of $\mathcal{A}_{FB}$ and differences of partial moments are discussed.
We review recent experimental and theoretical developments in inclusive semileptonic B -> Xc l nu decays. In particular, we discuss the determination of |Vcb| and of the heavy quark masses through fits based on the Operator Product Expansion.
The determination of |Vub| from inclusive semileptonic B decays is limited by uncertainties in modelling the decay distributions in b->ulnu transitions. The largest uncertainties arise from the limited knowledge of the appropriate b quark mass and Fermi momentum to use in the parameterization of the shape function. This paper presents a new method in which these shape function parameters are constrained by the same data used to measure |Vub|. The method requires measurements of the momenta of both the charged lepton and the neutrino in semileptonic B decays. From these quantities two complemen…
In this work we study the effects of New Physics (NP) operators on the inclusive $\bar{B} \to X_c τ^- \barν_τ$ decay including power $(\mathcal{O}(1/m_b^2))$ corrections in the NP operators. In analogy with $R(D^{(*)})$ observables, we study the observable $R(X_c)=\frac{\mathcal{B}(\bar{B} \to X_c τ^- \barν_τ)}{\mathcal{B}(\bar{B} \to X_c \ell^- \barν_\ell)}$. We present some numerical results for $R(X_c)$ and compare the results for this observable with and without power corrections in the NP contributions.
We perform global fits to the moments of semileptonic B decay distributions and extract |V_cb|, the heavy quark masses, and the non-perturbative parameters of the heavy quark expansion. We include NNLO perturbative corrections and recent determinations of the charm mass, and discuss how they improve the precision of the global fit. In particular, using the m_c determination of Ref.[11] we get m_b^kin=4.541(23) GeV and |V_cb|=(42.42+- 0.86) 10^{-3}. We also discuss the implications of the new fits for the normalization of rare B decays, the zero-recoil sum rule in B-> D* l nu, and the inclusive…
Pade-approximant methods are used to estimate the three-loop perturbative contributions to the inclusive semileptonic $b \to u$ decay rate. These improved estimates of the decay rate reduce the theoretical uncertainty in the extraction of the CKM matrix element $|V_{ub}|$ from the measured inclusive semileptonic branching ratio.
Inclusive semileptonic decays of beauty baryons are studied using the heavy quark expansion to ${\cal O}(1/m_b^3)$, at leading order in $α_s$. The case of a polarized decaying baryon is examined, with reference to $Λ_b$. An extension of the Standard Model effective Hamiltonian inducing $b \to U \ell {\bar ν}_ \ell$ transitions ($U=u,\,c$ and $\ell=e,\,μ,\,τ$) is considered, which comprises the full set of D=6 semileptonic operators with left-handed neutrinos. The effects of the new operators in several observables are described.
The magnitude of the CKM matrix elements Vcb can be extracted from inclusive semileptonic B decays in a model independent way pioneered by Kolya Uraltsev and collaborators. I review here the present status and latest developments in this field.
We estimate the heavy quark effective theory parameter λ_1 from inclusive semileptonic B-meson decay spectrum. By using recent CLEO double lepton tagging data of B -> X e nu, which shows the lepton momentum as low as 0.6 GeV, we extracted λ_1 \sim -0.58 GeV^2. We also derived \barΛ\sim 0.46 GeV and |V_{cb}| = 0.041 \pm 0.002.
We calculate the inclusive charmless semileptonic decay width of the B meson using a QCD-based approach. This approach is able to account for both dynamic and kinematic effects of nonperturbative QCD. The charmless semileptonic decay width is found to be enhanced by long-distance strong interactions by +(7\pm 5)% with respect to the free quark decay width. Using the resulting theoretical value for the charmless semileptonic decay width, an extraction of $|V_{ub}|$ is made from the measured lifetime and inclusive charmless semileptonic branching ratio of b hadrons.
This talk is a short review on the theoretical issues and uncertainties in the calculation of partial decay rates in inclusive B decays. The main emphasis is on charmless semileptonic decays, the B -> X(s) gamma photon spectrum, and the extraction of Vub using model-independent methods.
Some emerging difficulties in the theoretical description of exclusive semileptonic $\bar B$ decays are discussed in the context of the quark model. While there are no unambiguous problems at this time, I discuss physics beyond the valence quark model which should eventually be probed by precision measurements of $\bar B$ semileptonic decays.
We extend previous computations of the second order QCD corrections to semileptonic b \to c inclusive transitions, to the case where the charged lepton in the final state is massive. This allows accurate description of b \to c τ\bar ν_τdecays. We review techniques used in the computation of O(α_s^2) corrections to inclusive semileptonic b \to c transitions and present extensive numerical studies of O(α_s^2) QCD corrections to b \to c l \bar ν_l decays, for l =e, τ.
We present the results of a calculation of the perturbative QCD corrections for the semileptonic inclusive width of a heavy flavored meson. Within the Heavy Quark Expansion we analytically compute the QCD correction to the coefficient of power suppressed contribution of the chromo-magnetic operator in the limit of vanishing mass of the final state quark. The important phenomenological applications are decays of bottom mesons, and to the less extend, charmed mesons.
We study the inclusive charmless semileptonic decay of $Λ_b$, $Λ_b \to X_u l ν_l$, in the framework of heavy quark expansion and find that the rate is substantially enhanced by spectator effect. We obtain $Br(b \to X_u l ν_l)$ to be $1.13 \times 10^{-3}$ for $|V_{ub}| = 3.3 \times 10^{-3}$. We discuss our result in light of the recent LEP measurements of the charmless semileptonic branching ratio where such enhancement was not taken into account in extracting $|V_{ub}|$.
The determinations of |V_{cb}| and |V_{ub}| from inclusive semileptonic B decays are reviewed. A comparison of the light-cone approach with the heavy quark expansion approach is made. The perspective for further improvement of the |V_{cb}| and |V_{ub}| determinations is discussed.
We make an analysis of the hadronic invariant mass spectrum in inclusive charmless semileptonic B meson decays in a QCD-based approach. The decay width is studied as a function of the invariant mass cut. We examine their sensitivities to the parameters of the theory. The theoretical uncertainties in the determination of $|V_{ub}|$ from the hadronic invariant mass spectrum are investigated. A strategy for improving the theoretical accuracy in the value of $|V_{ub}|$ is described.
We present theoretical evidence that the exclusive/inclusive ratio of semileptonic $Λ_b$-decays exceeds that of semileptonic B-decays where the experimental exclusive/inclusive ratio amounts to about 66%. We start from the observation that the spectator quark model provides a lower bound on the leading order Isgur-Wise function of the $Λ_b \to Λ_c$ transition in terms of the corresponding $B \to D,D^*$ mesonic Isgur-Wise function. Using experimental data for the $B \to D,D^*$ mesonic Isgur-Wise functions this bound is established. Applying a Bethe-Salpeter model including spectator quark inter…
We present a Borel resummation method for the QCD corrections in inclusive, charmless, semileptonic B meson decay. The renormalon contributions are resummed to all orders by employing a bilocal expansion of the Borel transform that accurately accounts for the first infrared renormalons in the Borel plane. The renormalons in the pole mass and the QCD expansion are resummed separately, and a precise relation is obtained between a properly defined pole mass and the ${\bar {\rm MS}}$ mass. The inclusive decay rate is calculated to three loop order using an estimate of the yet unknown NNLO coeffici…
I identify a source of Lambda_{QCD}/m_Q corrections to the assumption of quark-hadron duality in the application of heavy quark methods to inclusive heavy quark semileptonic decays Q->q l nu_l. These corrections could substantially affect the accuracy of such methods in practical applications and in particular compromise their utility for the extraction of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element V_{cb}.
We study the forward-backward and the CP-violating asymmetries (both time-independent and time-dependent) in rare semileptonic and radiative leptonic B_{d,s}-decays and investigate the sensitivity of these asymmetries to the extensions of the Standard model.
Perturbative corrections of the order of $α_s$ to inclusive double differential lepton distribution from $b$ quark decay are considered. A perturbative correction to the charged lepton energy spectrum has been calculated for an arbitrary charged lepton mass. The perturbative contribution suppresses the partial rate but almost does not change the shape of energy distribution. Applications of our result to semileptonic B meson decays are briefly discussed.
Recent advances in improving extractions of |Vcb| and m_b from spectra of semileptonic inclusive B decay are reported. Results of a general moment analysis of the lepton energy spectrum and the hadronic invariant mass spectrum are summarized. The calculation of the general O(α_s) structure functions for semileptonic B decay is reported, which has allowed the calculation of the O(α_s Lambda_{QCD} /m_b) terms for the hadronic invariant mass moments to be carried out. Recent theoretical advances and improvements in experimental data has allowed extractions of the CKM element |Vcb| to improve to t…
We present Standard Model predictions for lepton flavour universality ratios of inclusive $B\to X_{(c)} \ell \barν_\ell$. For the $\ell=μ,e$, these ratios are very close to unity as expected. For the $τ$ mode, we update the SM prediction for the branching ratio including power-corrections in the heavy-quark expansion up to $1/m_b^3$. These inclusive ratios serve as an important cross-check of the exclusive $B\to D^{(*)}\ell\barν_\ell$ modes, in which tensions exists between the predictions and measurements in those modes.
The MSbar charm quark mass is determined to be m_c(m_c)=1224+-17+-54 MeV from a global fit to inclusive B meson decay data, where the first error is experimental, and includes the uncertainty in alpha_s, and the second is an estimate of theoretical uncertainties in the computation. We discuss the implications of the pole mass renormalon in the determination of m_c.
We present a complete $O(α_s^2)$ correction to the differential width of the inclusive semileptonic decay $b\to clν_l$ at the kinematical point of vanishing invariant mass of the leptons, $q^2=0$. Together with the recently computed $O(α_s^2)$ correction at the upper boundary of the lepton invariant mass spectrum, this new information permits an estimate of the $O(α_s^2)$ effect in the total inclusive semileptonic decay width $b\to clν_l$. We argue that the non-BLM part of the $O(α_s^2)$ correction gives at most 1% correction to the inclusive semileptonic decay width $b\to clν_l$. This signifi…
The effects of spectator light quark in decays of heavy mesons are considered, which vanish in the limit of factorization of matrix elements of four-quark operators over the mesons. These effects include the difference of the total widths as well as of the semileptonic decay rates between the D^0 and D_s mesons and also a contribution to inclusive semileptonic decay rates of B^0 and B^\pm into the channel X_u l nu related to determination of the weak mixing parameter V_{ub}. If the observed difference of the lifetimes between D_s and D^0 mesons is attributed to non-factorizable terms, such ter…
B decay sum rules relate exclusive B semileptonic decay matrix elements to forward B-meson matrix elements of operators in HQET. At leading order the operators that occur are the b-quark kinetic energy $λ_1$ and chromomagnetic energy $λ_2$. The latter is determined by the measured $B^*-B$ mass splitting. The derivation of these sum rules is reviewed and perturbative QCD corrections are discussed. A determination of $λ_1$ and the energy of the light degrees of freedom in a B-meson, $\barΛ$, from semileptonic B decay data is presented. Future prospects for improving these sum rules are discussed…
We compute 2-loop QCD corrections to the hard coefficient functions which arise in the factorization formula for B -> X_u l nu decays in the shape-function region. Our calculation provides the last missing piece required for a NNLO analysis of inclusive semileptonic B decays, which may significantly reduce the theoretical uncertainty in the extraction of the CKM matrix element |V_ub|. Among the technical aspects, we find that the 2-loop hard coefficient functions are free of infrared singularities as predicted by the factorization framework. We perform a brief numerical analysis of the NNLO co…
An admixture of a right-handed $b \to c$ current in the semileptonic weak decays of the $B$ mesons would give a significantly different contribution to the inclusive rate of the decays $B \to l νX_c$ as compared to the exclusive decay $B \to D^* l ν$ at zero recoil. Thus a difference in the values of $|V_{cb}|$ extracted from the data on these two types of decay would measure such admixture. The present marginal mismatch in determination of $|V_{cb}|$ by the two methods can be interpreted as corresponding to $g_R/g_L \approx 0.14 \pm 0.18$.
In this talk we present theoretical evidence that the exclusive/inclusive ratio of semileptonic Lambda_b-decays exceeds that of semileptonic B-decays, where the experimental exclusive/inclusive ratio amounts to about 66%. We start from the observation that the spectator quark model provides a lower bound on the leading order Isgur-Wise function of the Lambda_b -> Lambda_c transition in terms of the corresponding B -> D,D^* mesonic Isgur-Wise function. Using experimental data for the B -> D,D^* mesonic Isgur-Wise functions this bound is established. Applying a QCD sum rule estimate of the Lambd…
We consider spin-momentum correlations between the spin of the bottom baryon $Λ_{\mathrm{b}}$ and the momenta of its decay products in its inclusive semileptonic decay. We define several polar and azimuthal spin-momentum correlation measures in different event coordinate systems. The values of the spin-momentum correlation measures are calculated up to ${\cal O}(1/m_b^2)$ using the standard OPE und HQET methods. Some of the measures turn out to be sufficiently large to make them good candidates for a determination of the polarization of the $Λ_{\mathrm{b}}$ in e.g. $\mathrm{Z}$ decays.
We compute the $O(α_s)$ corrections to the Wilson coefficient of the chromomagnetic operator in inclusive semileptonic B decays. The results are employed to evaluate the complete $O(α_s Λ^2/m_b^2)$ correction to the semileptonic width and to the first moments of the lepton energy distribution.
We present an ab initio study of inclusive semileptonic decays of heavy mesons from lattice QCD. Our approach is based on a recently proposed method, that allows one to address the study of these decays from the analysis of smeared spectral functions extracted from four-point correlators on the lattice, where the smearing is defined in terms of the phase-space integration relevant to the inclusive decays. We present results obtained from gauge-field ensembles from the JLQCD and ETM collaborations, and discuss their relation with theoretical predictions from the operator-product expansion.
We reduce the perturbative uncertainty in the determination of |V_{ub}| from inclusive semileptonic B decays by calculating the rate of B -> X_u l nu events with dilepton invariant mass q^2>(M_B-M_D)^2 at subleading order in the hybrid expansion, and to next-to-leading order in renormalization-group improved perturbation theory. We also resum logarithmic corrections to the leading power-suppressed contributions. Studying the effect of different b-quark mass definitions we find that the branching ratio after the cut is Br(B -> X_u l nu)=(20.9+-4.0)|V_{ub}|^2, where the dominant error is due to …
Renormalization Group (RG) and optimized Pade-approximant methods are used to estimate the three-loop perturbative contributions to the inclusive semileptonic b \to u and b \to c decay rates. It is noted that the \bar{MS} scheme works favorably in the b \to u case whereas the pole mass scheme shows better convergence in the b \to c case. Upon the inclusion of the estimated three-loop contribution, we find the full perturbative decay rate to be 192π^3Γ(b\to u\barν_\ell\ell^-)/(G_F^2| V_{ub}|^2) = 2065 \pm 290{\rm GeV^5} and 192π^3Γ(b\to c\ell^-\barν_\ell)/(G_F^2|V_{cb}|^2)= 992 \pm 198 {\rm GeV…
We study logarithms of the form $\ln(m_q/m_b)$ which arise in the inclusive semileptonic decay of a bottom quark to a quark of mass $m_q$. We use the renormalization group to resum the leading radiative corrections to these terms, of the form $m_q^2α_s^n\ln^n(m_q/m_b)$, $m_q^3α_s^{n+1}\ln^n(m_q/m_b)$ and $m_q^4α_s^n\ln^{n+1}(m_q/m_b)$. The first two resummations are trivial, while the latter involves a non-trivial mixing of four-fermi operators in the $1/m_b$ expansion. We illustrate this technique in a toy model in which the semileptonic decay is mediated by a vector interaction, before treat…
We perform a complete "Michel parameter" analysis of all possible helicity structures which can appear in the process $B \to X_c \ell \barν_\ell$. We take into account the full set of operators parametrizing the effective Hamiltonian and include the complete one-loop QCD corrections as well as the non-perturbative contributions. The moments of the leptonic energy as well as the combined moments of the hadronic energy and hadronic invariant mass are calculated including the non-standard contributions.
Recent progress in calculating O(alpha_s^2) corrections to inclusive and exclusive semileptonic b-->c transitions is reviewed. The impact of these corrections on the |V_cb| determination from both inclusive and exclusive B decays is discussed.
We search for signals of Weak Annihilation in inclusive semileptonic D decays. We consider both the widths and the lepton energy moments, which are quite sensitive probes. Our analysis of Cleo data shows no clear evidence of Weak Annihilation, and allows us to put bounds on their relevance in charmless B semileptonic decays.
We have quantitatively reanalyzed the inclusive charmed-baryon decays. New ingredients are the Voloshin preasymptotic effects in semileptonic decays and the Cabibbo-subleading contributions to both semileptonic and nonleptonic decays. It has been found that the Cabbibo-subleading Voloshin contribution essentially improves the theoretical semileptonic branching ratio of $Λ_c^{+}$, in agreement with experiment. The semileptonic branching ratios for $Ξ_c^{+}$ and $Ω_c^{0}$ are found to be large, i.e., of the order of 20%. The lifetimes hierarchy is in a good qualitative and even quantitative agre…
We analyze the inclusive semileptonic $B \to X_c \ellν$ structure functions in 2+1-flavor lattice QCD. The Möbius domain-wall fermion action is used for light, strange, charm and bottom quarks. The structure function receives contributions from various exclusive modes, including the dominant S-wave states $D^{(*)}_s$ as well as the P-wave states $D_s^{**}$. We can identify them in the lattice data, from which we put some constraints on the $B_s \to D_s^{**}\ellν$ form factors.
In the spirit of Mueller-Navelet dijet production, we propose and study the inclusive production of a forward $J/ψ$ and a very backward jet at the LHC as an observable to reveal high-energy resummation effects à la BFKL. We obtain several predictions, which are based on the various mechanisms discussed in the literature to describe the production of the $J/ψ$, namely, NRQCD singlet and octet contributions, and the color evaporation model.
