Handbook of Higher Twist Distribution Amplitudes of Vector Mesons in QCD

We give a summary of existing results on higher twist distribution amplitudes of vector mesons in QCD. Special attention is payed to meson mass corrections which turn out to be large. A ``shopping list'' is presented of most important nonperturbative parameters which enter distribution amplitudes.Comment: Talk presented by V.M. Braun at 3rd workshop ``Continuous Advances in QCD'', Minneapolis, MN, USA, April 16--19, 1998; 17 pages, 2 figures, requires sprocl.sty (included

QCD sum rules in the effective heavy quark theory

We derive sum rules for the leptonic decay constant of a heavy-light meson in the effective heavy quark theory. We show that the summation of logarithms in the heavy quark mass by the renormalization group technique enhances considerably radiative corrections. Our result for the decay constant in the static limit agrees well with recent lattice calculations. Finite quark mass corrections are estimated

B->gamma e nu Transitions from QCD Sum Rules

B->gamma e nu transitions have recently been studied in the framework of QCD factorization. The attractiveness of this channel for such an analysis lies in the fact that, at least in the heavy quark limit, the only hadron involved is the B meson itself, so one expects a very simple description of the form factor in terms of a convolution of the B meson distribution amplitude with a perturbative kernel. This description, however, does not include contributions suppressed by powers of the b quark mass. In this letter, we calculate corrections to the factorized expression which are induced by the ``soft'' hadronic component of the photon. We demonstrate that the power-suppression of these terms is numerically not effective for physical values of the $b$ quark mass and that they increase the form factor by about 30% at zero momentum transfer. We also derive a sum rule for lambda_B, the first negative moment of the B meson distribution amplitude, and find lambda_B = 0.6 GeV (to leading order in QCD).Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Exclusive Semileptonic and Rare B-Meson Decays in QCD

We present the first complete results for the semileptonic and rare radiative form factors of B-mesons weak decay into a light vector-meson (rho, omega, K*, phi) in the light-cone sum-rule approach. The calculation includes radiative corrections, higher-twist corrections and SU(3)-breaking effects. The theoretical uncertainty is investigated in detail. A simple parametrization of the form factors is given in terms of three parameters each. We find that the form factors observe several relations inspired by heavy-quark symmetry.Comment: 35 pages, 9 figures; English phrasing polished, lattice-data in Figs. 6 and 7 corrected; accepted for publication in PR

Power to mechanical power to minimize ventilator-induced lung injury?

Mechanical ventilation is a life-supportive therapy, but can also promote damage to pulmonary structures, such as epithelial and endothelial cells and the extracellular matrix, in a process referred to as ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI). Recently, the degree of VILI has been related to the amount of energy transferred from the mechanical ventilator to the respiratory system within a given timeframe, the so-called mechanical power. During controlled mechanical ventilation, mechanical power is composed of parameters set by the clinician at the bedside-such as tidal volume (VT), airway pressure (Paw), inspiratory airflow (V'), respiratory rate (RR), and positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) level-plus several patient-dependent variables, such as peak, plateau, and driving pressures. Different mathematical equations are available to calculate mechanical power, from pressure-volume (PV) curves to more complex formulas which consider both dynamic (kinetic) and static (potential) components; simpler methods mainly consider the dynamic component. Experimental studies have reported that, even at low levels of mechanical power, increasing VT causes lung damage. Mechanical power should be normalized to the amount of ventilated pulmonary surface; the ratio of mechanical power to the alveolar area exposed to energy delivery is called "intensity." Recognizing that mechanical power may reflect a conjunction of parameters which may predispose to VILI is an important step toward optimizing mechanical ventilation in critically ill patients. However, further studies are needed to clarify how mechanical power should be taken into account when choosing ventilator settings

The Semileptonic Decays D→π(ρ)eνD\to \pi(\rho) e \nu and B→π(ρ)eνB\to \pi (\rho) e \nu from QCD Sum Rules

We investigate the semileptonic decays of B and D mesons into $\pi$ and $\rho$ mesons, respectively, by means of QCD sum rules. We find that for the vector formfactors involved the pole dominance hypothesis is valid to good accuracy with pole masses in the expected range. Pole dominance, however, does not apply to the axial formfactors which results in specific predictions for the predominant polarization of the $\rho$ meson and the shape of the lepton spectrum. For the total decay rates we find $\Gamma (\bar B^0 \to \pi^+ e^- \bar\nu) = (5.1\pm 1.1)\,|V_{ub}|^2\, 10^{12}\,{\rm s^{-1}}$, $\Gamma ( D^0 \to \pi^- e^+ \nu) = (8.0\pm 1.7)\,|V_{cd}|^2\, 10^{10}\,{\rm s^{-1}}$, $\Gamma (\bar B^0 \to \rho^+ e^- \bar\nu) = (1.2\pm 0.4\,)\,|V_{ub}|^2\, 10^{13}\,{\rm s^{-1}}$ and $\Gamma (D^0 \to \rho^- e^+\nu) = (2.4\pm 0.7)\,|V_{cd}|^2\, 10^{9}\,{\rm s^{-1}}$.Comment: 23 pages, 12 figures included as uu-encoded file, needs REVTEX, TUM--T31--39/9

Symmetries and Asymmetries of B -> K* mu+ mu- Decays in the Standard Model and Beyond

The rare decay B -> K* (-> K pi) mu+ mu- is regarded as one of the crucial channels for B physics as the polarization of the K* allows a precise angular reconstruction resulting in many observables that offer new important tests of the Standard Model and its extensions. These angular observables can be expressed in terms of CP-conserving and CP-violating quantities which we study in terms of the full form factors calculated from QCD sum rules on the light-cone, including QCD factorization corrections. We investigate all observables in the context of the Standard Model and various New Physics models, in particular the Littlest Higgs model with T-parity and various MSSM scenarios, identifying those observables with small to moderate dependence on hadronic quantities and large impact of New Physics. One important result of our studies is that new CP-violating phases will produce clean signals in CP-violating asymmetries. We also identify a number of correlations between various observables which will allow a clear distinction between different New Physics scenarios.Comment: 56 pages, 18 figures, 14 tables. v5: Missing factor in eqs. (3.31-32) and fig. 6 corrected. Minor misprints in eq. (2.10) and table A corrected. Conclusions unchange

B->eta(') Form Factors in QCD

We calculate the semileptonic form factors $f_+^{B\to \eta}(q^2)$ and $f_+^{B\to \eta'}(q^2)$ from QCD sum rules on the light-cone (LCSRs), to NLO in QCD, and for small to moderate q^2, $0\leq q^2\leq 16 {\rm GeV}^2$. We include in particular the so-called singlet contribution, i.e.\ weak annihilation of the B meson with the emission of two gluons which, thanks to the U(1)$_{\rm A}$ anomaly, couple directly to \etap. This effect is included to leading-twist accuracy. This contribution has been neglected in previous calculations of the form factors from LCSRs. We find that the singlet contribution to $f_+^{B\to \eta'}$ can be up to 20%, while that to $f_+^{B\to \eta}$ is, as expected, much smaller and below 3%. We also suggest to measure the ratio ${\cal B}(B\to\eta' e \nu)/{\cal B}(B\to \eta e \nu)$ to better constrain the size of the singlet contribution.Comment: 21 pages; version to appear in JHE