Lifetimes of Heavy-Flavour Hadrons -- Whence and Whither?

A theoretical treatment for the weak decays of heavy-flavour hadrons has been developed that is genuinely based on QCD. Its methodology as it applies to total lifetimes and the underlying theoretical issues are sketched. Predictions are compared with present data. One discrepancy emerges: the beauty baryon lifetime appears to be significantly shorter than expected. The ramifications of those findings are analyzed in detail.Comment: 15 pages, no figures, LATEX, two references added and new information concerning a lower charm content in B decays incorporate

The Mass Definition in Hqet and a New Determination of Vcb_{\text{cb}}

Positive powers of the mass parameter in a physical quantity calculated with the help of heavy quark effective theory originate from a Wilson coefficient in the matching of QCD and HQET Green function. We show that this mass parameter enters the calculation as a well--defined running current mass. We further argue that the recently found ill--definition of the pole mass, which is the natural expansion parameter of HQET, does not affect a phenomenological analysis which uses truncated perturbative series. We reanalyse inclusive semileptonic decays of heavy mesons and obtain the $c$ quark mass $m_c^{\overline{\text{MS}}}(m_c) = (1.35\pm 0.20)\,\text{GeV}$ where the error is almost entirely due to scale--uncertainties. We also obtain $m_b^{\overline{\text{MS}}}(m_b) = (4.6\pm 0.3)\,\text{GeV}$ and $|V_{cb}|(\tau_B/1.49\,\text{ps})^{1/2} = 0.036\pm 0.005$ where the errors come from the uncertainty in the kinetic energy of the heavy quark inside the meson, in the experimental branching ratios, in QCD input parameters, and scale--uncertainties.Comment: 21 p., 5 figs, all style files incl., TUM-T31-56/R (Sec. 2 revised, phenomenological results unchanged

Heavy Quark Expansion and Preasymptotic Corrections to Decay Widths in the 't Hooft Model

We address nonperturbative power corrections to inclusive decay widths of heavy flavor hadrons in the context of the 't Hooft model (two-dimensional QCD at N_c->oo), with the emphasis on the spectator-dependent effects sensitive to the flavor of the spectator. The summation of exclusive widths is performed analytically using the `t Hooft equation. We show that the 1/m_Q expansion of both the Weak Annihilation and Pauli Interference widths coincides with the OPE predictions, to the computed orders. Violation of local duality in the inclusive widths is quantified, and the new example is identified where the OPE prediction and the actual effect are completely saturated by a single final state. The qualitative aspects of quark hadronization emerging from the analysis in the 't Hooft model are discussed. Certain aspects of summation of spectator-independent hadronic weak decay widths are given in more detail, which were not spelled out previously. We also give some useful details of the 1/m_Q expansion in the 't~Hooft model.Comment: 54 pages, 8 figures in the text. Version to be published in Phys. Rev. D. A number of typos are corrected and relevant references added. Clarifications in Conclusions, Appendices 2.1 and 3 are adde

Infrared effects and the asymptotics of perturbation theory in weak decays of heavy particles

I discuss the interplay of infrared sensitivity in large order perturbative expansions with the presence of explicit nonperturbative corrections in the context of heavy quark expansions. The main focus is on inclusive decays and the status of the kinetic energy of the heavy quark. This talk summarizes work done with Braun and Zakharov.Comment: LATEX, world_sci.sty (appended to the file), UM-TH-94-30 (Invited talk presented at the conference ``QCD'94'', Montpellier, France, July 7 - 13, 1994) [Typo in ref. 6 corrected, pardon.

Bloch-Nordsieck cancellations beyond logarithms in heavy particle decays

We investigate the one-loop radiative corrections to the semileptonic decay of a charged particle at finite gauge boson mass. Extending the Bloch-Nordsieck cancellation of infrared logarithms, the subsequent non-analytic terms are also found to vanish after eliminating the pole mass in favor of a mass defined at short distances. This observation justifies the operator product expansion for inclusive decays of heavy mesons and implies that infrared effects associated with the summation of the radiative corrections are suppressed by at least three powers of the mass of the heavy decaying particle.Comment: LATEX, 7 pages, one figure appended as uu-encoded ps-file, MPI-PhT/94-1

Heavy Quark Distribution Function in QCD and the AC2^2M2^2 Model

We show that the phenomenological \ACM ansatz is consistent with QCD through order $1/m_b$ in the description of B\ra l\bar \nu_l+X_u and B\ra \gamma +X_s transitions, including their energy spectra and differential distributions. This suggests a concrete realization for the QCD distribution function, which we call the ``Roman'' function. On the other hand the \ACM model description of the end-point domain in B\ra l\bar \nu_l + X_c is incompatible with QCD: a different distribution function enters the description of b\ra c decays as compared to the transitions to the massless quarks. Both observations -- the validity of the {\ACM}-like description for heavy-to-light transitions and the emergence of the new distribution function in the b\ra c case -- are in contradiction to a recent claim in the literature. The intrinsic limitation of the \ACM model could reveal itself in different values of the effective $b$ quark mass from fits of the $\Lambda _b$ and $B$ decays.Comment: 15 pages, Latex, 2 figures are included (as 2 appended postscript files), CERN-TH.7159/94, TPI-MINN-94/2-T, UND-HEP-94-BIG02 (a few comments on the literature are added

The Two Roads to "Intrinsic Charm" in B Decays

We describe two complementary ways to show the presence of higher order effects in the 1/m_Q expansion for inclusive B decays that have been dubbed "Intrinsic Charm". Apart from the lessons they can teach us about QCD's nonperturbative dynamics their consideration is relevant for precise extractions of |V_{cb}|: for they complement the estimate of the potential impact of 1/m_Q^4 contributions. We draw semiquantitative conclusions for the expected scale of Weak Annihilation in semileptonic B decays, both for its valence and non-valence components.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figure

A Vademecum on Quark-Hadron Duality

We present an elementary introduction to the problem of quark-hadron duality and its practical limitations, in particular as it concerns local duality violation in inclusive B meson decays. We show that the accurate definition of duality violation elaborated over the recent years allows one to derive informative constraints on violations of local duality. The magnitude of duality violation is particularly restricted in the total semileptonic widths. This explains its strong suppression in concrete dynamical estimates. We analyze the origin of the suppression factors in a model-independent setting, including a fresh perspective on the Small Velocity expansion. A new potentially significant mechanism for violation of local duality in \Gamma_sl(B) is analyzed. Yet we conclude that the amount of duality violation in \Gamma_sl(B) must be safely below the half percent level, with realistic estimates being actually much smaller. Violation of local duality in \Gamma_sl(B) is thus far below the level relevant to phenomenology. We also present a cautionary note on the B->D^* decay amplitude at zero recoil and show that it is much more vulnerable to violations of quark-hadron duality than \Gamma_sl(B). A critical review of some recent literature is given. We point out that the presently limiting factor in genuinely model-independent extraction of V_cb is the precise value of the short-distance charm quark mass. We suggest a direct and precise experimental check of local quark-hadron duality in semileptonic B->X_c l\nu decays.Comment: 48 pages, 4 figures; LaTe

A Lattice Study of Spectator Effects in Inclusive Decays of B-Mesons

We compute the matrix elements of the operators which contribute to spectator effects in inclusive decays of $B$-mesons. The results agree well with estimates based on the vacuum saturation (factorization) hypothesis. For the ratio of lifetimes of charged and neutral mesons we find $\tau(B^-)/\tau(B_d)=1.03\pm 0.02\pm 0.03$, where the first error represents the uncertainty in our evaluation of the matrix elements, and the second is an estimate of the uncertainty due to the fact that the Wilson coefficient functions have only been evaluated at tree-level in perturbation theory. This result is in agreement with the experimental measurement. We also discuss the implications of our results for the semileptonic branching ratio and the charm yield.Comment: 25 pages (figures are included). Revised version (some numerical integrals have been recomputed

Precision Studies of Duality in the 't Hooft Model

We address numerical aspects of local quark-hadron duality using the example of the exactly solvable 't Hooft model, two-dimensional QCD with N_c --> infinity. The primary focus of these studies is total semileptonic decay widths relevant for extracting |V_{cb}| and |V_{ub}|. We compare the exact channel-by-channel sum of exclusive modes to the corresponding rates obtained in the standard 1/m_Q expansion arising from the Operator Product Expansion. An impressive agreement sets in unexpectedly early, immediately after the threshold for the first hadronic excitation in the final state. Yet even at higher energy release it is possible to discern the seeds of duality-violating oscillations. We find the ``Small Velocity'' sum rules to be exceptionally well saturated already by the first excited state. We also obtain a convincing degree of duality in the differential distributions and in an analogue of R_{e^+e^-}(s). Finally, we discuss possible lessons for semileptonic decays of actual heavy quarks in QCD.Comment: 45 pages, 16 eps figures include