Semileptonic and Exclusive Rare B Decays

The exclusive rare decay B \ra K^\ast \gamma takes place in a region of maximum recoil, $q^{2}=0$, posing a problem for nonrelativistic quark models which are usually thought to be most reliable at zero recoil. The Bauer--Stech--Wirbel (BSW) model, formulated in the infinite--momentum--frame (IMF) formalism, is designed to work at $q^2=0$. We show in this model that the ratio relating the decay B \ra K^\ast \gamma and the $q^2$--spectrum of the semileptonic decay B\ra \rho e {\bar \nu}, becomes independent of the wave function in the SU(3) flavor symmetry limit. We show that this feature is also true in relativistic quark models formulated in the IMF or light--cone formalism, if the $b$ quark is infinitely heavy. In fact, these relativistic models, which have a different spin structure from the BSW case, reduce to the BSW model in the heavy $b$--quark limit. A direct measurement of the $q^2$--spectrum of the semileptonic decay can therefore provide accurate information for the exclusive rare decay.Comment: 13 pages, Latex, no figure, UTPT--94--0

The PAMELA excess from neutralino annihilation in the NMSSM

We examine whether the cosmic ray positron excess observed by PAMELA can be explained by neutralino annihilation in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM). The main dark matter annihilation products are the lightest CP-even scalar h1 plus the lightest CP-odd scalar a1, with the a1 decaying into two muons. The energetic positrons needed to explain PAMELA are thus obtained in the NMSSM simply from kinematics. The required large annihilation cross section is obtained from an s-channel resonance with the heavier CP-odd scalar a2. Various experiments constrain the PAMELA-favored NMSSM parameter space, including collider searches for a light a1. These constraints point to a unique corner of the NMSSM parameter space, having a lightest neutralino mass around 160 GeV and a very light pseudoscalar mass less than a GeV. A simple parameterized formula for the charge-dependent solar modulation effects reconciles the discrepancy between the PAMELA data and the estimated background at lower energies. We also discuss the electron and gamma ray spectra from the Fermi LAT observations, and point out the discrepancy between the NMSSM predictions and Fermi LAT preliminary results and possible resolution. An NMSSM explanation of PAMELA makes three striking and uniquely correlated predictions: the rise in the PAMELA positron spectrum will turn over at around 70 GeV, the dark matter particle mass is less than the top quark mass, and a light sub-GeV pseudoscalar will be discovered at colliders.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures; final version for PR

Three-Fermion Bound States on the Light Front

We investigate the stability of the relativistic three-fermion system with a zero-range force in the light front form. In particular, introducing an invariant cut-off, we study the dependence of the bound state on the coupling strength also for cases where the two-fermion system is unbound. The relativistic Thomas collapse is discussed by solving the fully coupled integral equation system. Furthermore, we explicitly investigate the ground state mass of the three-fermion system and compare to previous simplified calculations.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figure

Status of the N* Program at Jefferson Lab

Recent results from JLab on the electromagnetic excitation of nucleon resonances are presented, and confronted with theoretical predictions. Preliminary data in the search for undiscovered states are discussed as well.Comment: 7 pages, 11 figures, talk presented at Electron-Nucleus Scattering VII, Elba, June 24-28,2002, added reference in section 2 and section 4.1, corrected misleading typographical error in section 4.

Perturbative QCD Analysis of the Nucleon's Pauli Form Factor F_2(Q^2)

We perform a perturbative QCD analysis of the nucleon's Pauli form factor $F_2(Q^2)$ in the asymptotically large $Q^2$ limit. We find that the leading contribution to $F_2(Q^2)$ has a $1/Q^6$ power behavior, consistent with the well-known result in the literature. Its coefficient depends on the leading- and subleading-twist light-cone wave functions of the nucleon, the latter describing the quarks with one unit of orbital angular momentum. We also derive at the logarithmic accurary the asymptotic scaling $F_2(Q^2)/F_1(Q^2) \sim (\log^2 Q^2/\Lambda^2)/Q^2$ which describes recent Jefferson Lab data well.Comment: 4 papes, 3 figures include

Nucleon and pion electromagnetic form factors in a light-front constituent quark model

Nucleon and pion electromagnetic form factors are evaluated in the spacelike region within a light-front constituent quark model, where eigenfunctions of a mass operator, reproducing a large set of hadron energy levels, are adopted and quark form factors are considered in the one-body current. The hadron form factors are sharply affected by the high momentum tail generated in the wave function by the one-gluon-exchange interaction. Useful information on the electromagnetic structure of light constituent quarks can be obtained from the comparison with nucleon and pion experimental data.Comment: 9 pages, latex, 4 figures available as separate .uu fil

On the radiative decays of light vector and axial-vector mesons

We study the light vector and axial-vector mesons. According to the hadrogenesis conjecture the nature of the two types of states is distinct. The axial-vector mesons are generated dynamically by coupled-channel interactions based on the chiral Lagrangian written down in terms of the Goldstone bosons and the light vector mesons. We propose a novel counting scheme that arises if the chiral Lagrangian is supplemented by constraints from large-N_c QCD in the context of the hadrogenesis conjecture. The counting scheme is successfully tested by a systematic study of the properties of vector mesons. The spectrum of light axial-vector mesons is derived relying on the leading order interaction of the Goldstone bosons with the vector mesons supplemented by a phenomenology for correction terms. The f_1(1282), b_1(1230), h_1(1386), a_1(1230) and K_1(1272) mesons are recovered as molecular states. Based on those results the one-loop contributions to the electromagnetic decay amplitudes of axial-vector molecules into pseudo-scalar or vector mesons are evaluated systematically. In order to arrive at gauge invariant results in a transparent manner we choose to represent the vector particles by anti-symmetric tensor fields. It is emphasized that there are no tree-level contributions to a radiative decay amplitude of a given state if that state is generated by coupled-channel dynamics. The inclusion of the latter would be double counting. At present we restrict ourselves to loops where a vector and a pseudo-scalar meson couple to the axial-vector molecule. We argue that final and predictive results require further computations involving intermediate states with two vector mesons. The relevance of the latter is predicted by our counting rules.Comment: added appendix concerning double-counting issue

Light Cone Sum Rules for gamma* N -> Delta Transition Form Factors

A theoretical framework is suggested for the calculation of gamma* N -> Delta transition form factors using the light-cone sum rule approach. Leading-order sum rules are derived and compared with the existing experimental data. We find that the transition form factors in a several GeV region are dominated by the ``soft'' contributions that can be thought of as overlap integrals of the valence components of the hadron wave functions. The ``minus'' components of the quark fields contribute significantly to the result, which can be reinterpreted as large contributions of the quark orbital angular momentumComment: 38 pages, 10 figures; some typos fixed and references added, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Baryon Current Matrix Elements in a Light-Front Framework

Current matrix elements and observables for electro- and photo-excitation of baryons from the nucleon are studied in a light-front framework. Relativistic effects are estimated by comparison to a nonrelativistic model, where we use simple basis states to represent the baryon wavefunctions. Sizeable relativistic effects are found for certain transitions, for example, to radial excitations such as that conventionally used to describe to the Roper resonance. A systematic study shows that the violation of rotational covariance of the baryon transition matrix elements stemming from the use of one-body currents is generally small.Comment: 32 pages, LaTeX, 10 postscript figures, uses epsf.sty; figures uuencoded with uufiles (or available by request in .ps or hardcopy form

Charm and Bottom Semileptonic Decays

We review the present status of theoretical attempts to calculate the semileptonic charm and bottom decays and then present a calculation of these decays in the light--front frame at the kinematic point $q^2=0$. This allows us to evaluate the form factors at the same value of $q^2$, even though the allowed kinematic ranges for charm and bottom decays are very different. Also, at this kinematic point the decay is given in terms of only one form factor $A_{0}(0)$. For the ratio of the decay rates given by the E653 collaboration we show that the determination of the ratio of the Cabibbo--Kobayashi--Maskawa (CKM) matrix elements is consistent with that obtained from the unitarity constraint. At present, though, the unitarity method still has greater accuracy. Since comparisons of the semileptonic decays into $\rho$ and either electrons or muons will be available soon from the E791 Fermilab experiment, we also look at the massive muon case. We show that for a range of $q^2$ the $SU(3)_F$ symmetry breaking is small even though the contributions of the various helicity amplitudes becomes more complicated. For $B$ decays, the decay $B \rightarrow K^{*} \ell \bar{\ell}$ at $q^2=0$ involves an extra form factor coming from the photon contribution and so is not amenable to the same kind of analysis, leaving only the decay $B \rightarrow K^{*}\nu \bar{\nu}$ as a possibility. As the mass of the decaying particle increases we note that the $SU(3)$ symmetry becomes badly broken at $q^2=0$.Comment: Latex, 19 pages, two figures are attached, a minor change in the manuscript related to thi