Measurement of the Width Difference of B_d Mesons

We estimate \Delta Gamma_d/\Gamma_d, including 1/m_b contributions and part of the next-to-leading order QCD corrections, and find it to be around 0.3%. We show the methods to measure \Delta Gamma_d/\Gamma_d by using at least two different final states on the untagged B_d decay. The nonzero width difference can also be used to identify new physics effects and to resolve a twofold discrete ambiguity in the B_d-\bar{B}_d mixing phase. With the high statistics and accurate time resolution of the upcoming LHC experiment, the measurement of \Delta Gamma_d seems to be possible. This measurement would be important for an accurate measurement of \sin2\phi_1 at the LHC. We also derive an upper bound on the value of \Delta Gamma_d/\Gamma_d in the presence of new physics.Comment: 3 pages, LaTeX, Presented at the 5th KEK Topical Conference(KEKTC5

Renormalons and confinement

We compute the renormalon ambiguity of the static potential, in the limit of a large number of flavors. An extrapolation of the QED result to QCD implies that the large distance behavior of the quark potential is arbitrary in perturbation theory, as there are an infinite number of prescriptions to assign. The shape of the potential at large distances is not only affected by the renormalon pole closest to the origin of the Borel plane, but a resummation of all renormalon contributions is required. In particular, confinement can be accommodated, but it is not explained. At short distances there is no indication of a linear term in the potential.Comment: 7 pages revtex; major changes: list of authors corrected, title, abstract, body of paper changed

On The Difficulty of Computing Higher-Twist Corrections

We discuss the evaluation of power corrections to hard scattering and decay processes for which an operator product expansion is applicable. The Wilson coefficient of the leading-twist operator is the difference of two perturbative series, each of which has a renormalon ambiguity of the same order as the power corrections themselves, but which cancel in the difference. We stress the necessity of calculating this coefficient function to sufficiently high orders in perturbation theory so as to make the uncertainty of the same order or smaller than the relevant power corrections. We investigate in some simple examples whether this can be achieved. Our conclusion is that in most of the theoretical calculations which include power corrections, the uncertainties are at least comparable to the power corrections themselves, and that it will be a very difficult task to improve the situation.Comment: 27 pages, uuencoded file containing latex source and axodraw.sty fil

Conceptual aspects of QCD factorization in hadronic B decays

I review the meaning of ``QCD factorization'' in hadronic two-body B decays and then discuss recent results of theoretical (rather than phenomenological) nature: the proof of factorization at two loops; the identification of ``chirally enhanced'' power corrections; and the role of annihilation contributions.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX. Based on talks presented at the UK Phenomenology Workshop on Heavy Flavour and CP Violation, 17 - 22 September 2000, Durham, proceedings to appear in J. Phys. G; the 5th International Symposium on Radiative Corrections (RADCOR2000), Carmel, California, September 11 - 15, 2000; the 4th Workshop on Continuous Advances in QCD, Minneapolis, 12-14 May 2000; the Vth International Workshop on Heavy Quark Physics, Dubna, 6-8 April 200

Power corrections and renormalons in Drell-Yan production

The resummed Drell-Yan cross section in the double-logarithmic approximation suffers from infrared renormalons. Their presence was interpreted as an indication for non-perturbative corrections of order \lqcd/(Q(1-z)). We find that, once soft gluon emission is accurately taken into account, the leading renormalon divergence in the resummed cross section is cancelled by higher-order perturbative contributions in the exponent of the resummed cross section. From this evidence, `higher twist' corrections to the hard cross section in Drell-Yan production should therefore intervene only at order \lqcd^2/((Q^2 (1-z)^2) in the entire perturbative domain Q (1-z) > \lqcd. We compare this result with hadronic event shape variables, comment on the potential universality of non-perturbative corrections to resummed cross sections, and on possible implications for phenomenology.Comment: 37 pages, LATEX, 3 figures as uudecoded fil

The nature of power corrections in large β0\beta_0 approximation

We investigate the nature of power corrections and infrared renormalon singularities in large $\beta_0$ approximation. We argue that the power correction associated with a renormalon pole singularity should appear at O(1), in contrast to the renormalon ambiguity appearing at $O(1/\beta_0)$, and give an explanation why the leading order renormalon singularities are generically poles.Comment: 6 page

Enhanced electroweak penguin amplitude in B-->VV decays

We discuss a novel electromagnetic penguin contribution to the transverse helicity amplitudes in B decays to two vector mesons, which is enhanced by two powers of mB/Lambda relative to the standard penguin amplitudes. This leads to unique polarization signatures in penguin-dominated decay modes such as B-->rho K* similar to polarization effects in the radiative decay B-->K*gamma, and offers new opportunities to probe the magnitude and chirality of flavour-changing neutral current couplings to photons.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

NNLO vertex corrections to non-leptonic B decays: Tree amplitudes

The colour-suppressed tree amplitude in non-leptonic B decays is particularly sensitive to perturbative and non-perturbative corrections. We calculate the two-loop (NNLO) vertex corrections to the colour-suppressed and colour-allowed tree amplitudes in QCD factorization. Our results are given completely analytically, including the full dependence on the charm quark mass. We then update theoretical predictions for a range of interesting observables derived from pi pi, pi rho, and rho rho final states that do not depend (significantly) on penguin contributions, and hence are now available with NNLO accuracy. We observe good agreement with experimental data within experimental and theoretical errors, except for observables involving the pi^0 pi^0 branching fraction.Comment: 52 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables. Equations (42) and (84) are contained in electronic form in the source file of the present submissio

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

Polarization of Upsilon(nS) at the Tevatron

The polarization of inclusive Upsilon(nS) at the Fermilab Tevatron is calculated within the nonrelativistic QCD factorization framework. We use a recent determination of the NRQCD matrix elements from fitting the CDF data on bottomonium production from Run IB of the Tevatron. The result for the polarization of Upsilon(1S) integrated over the transverse momentum bin 8 < p_T < 20 GeV is consistent with a recent measurement by the CDF Collaboration. The transverse polarization of Upsilon(1S) is predicted to increase steadily for p_T greater than about 10 GeV. The Upsilon(2S) and Upsilon(3S) are predicted to have significantly larger transverse polarizations than Upsilon(1S).Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure