Techniques for computing two-loop QCD corrections to b-->c transitions

We have recently presented the complete O(alpha_s^2) corrections to the semileptonic decay width of the b quark at maximal recoil. Here we discuss various technical aspects of that calculation and further applications of similar methods. In particular, we describe an expansion which facilitates the phase space integrations and the treatment of the mixed real-virtual corrections, for which Taylor expansion does not work and the so-called eikonal expansion must be employed. Several terms of the expansion are given for the O(alpha_s^2) QCD corrections to the differential semileptonic decay width of the b --quark at maximal recoil. We also demonstrate how the light quark loop corrections to the top quark decay rate can be obtained using the same methods. We briefly discuss the application of these techniques to the calculation of the O(alpha_s^2) correction to zero recoil sum rules for heavy flavor transitions.Comment: 22 pages, revte

Helicity fractions of W bosons from top quark decays at NNLO in QCD

Decay rates of unpolarized top quarks into longitudinally and transversally polarized W bosons are calculated to second order in the strong coupling constant alpha_s. Including the finite bottom quark mass and electroweak effects, the Standard Model predictions for the W boson helicity fractions are F_L=0.687(5), F_+=0.0017(1), and F_-=0.311(5).Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Dipole Excitation of Dipositronium

The energy interval between the ground and the P-wave excited states of the recently discovered positronium molecule Ps_2 is evaluated, including the relativistic and the leading logarithmic radiative corrections, E_P-E_S = 0.181 586 7(8) a.u. The P-state, decaying usually via annihilation, is found to decay into the ground state by an electric dipole transition 19 percent of the time. Anticipated observation of this transition will provide insight into this exotic system.Comment: 5 page

QCD corrections to the t-->H+b decay within the minimal supersymmetric standard model

I present the contribution of gluinos and scalar quarks to the decay rate of the top quark into a charged Higgs boson and a bottom quark within the minimal supersymmetric standard model, including the mixing of the scalar partners of the left- and right-handed top quark. I show that for certain values of the supersymmetric parameters the standard QCD loop corrections to this decay mode are diminished or enhanced by several 10 per cent. I show that not only a small value of 3 GeV for the gluino mass (small mass window) but also much larger values of several hundreds of GeV's have a non-neglible effect on this decay rate, against general belief. Last but not least, if the ratio of the vacuum expectation values of the Higgs bosons are taken in the limit of $v_1\ll v_2$ I obtain a drastic enhancement due to a $\tan\beta$\ dependence in the couplings.Comment: UQAM-PHE-94/01, 6 pages, plain tex, 4 figures not included, available under request via mail or fa

Semileptonic decays in the limit of a heavy daughter quark

The rate of the semileptonic decay b to c l v is calculated with order alphas^2 accuracy, as an expansion around the limit of equal masses of the b and c quarks. Recent results obtained around the limit of the c-quark much lighter than b are confirmed. Details of the new expansion method are described.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Radiative-nonrecoil corrections of order alpha^2 (Z alpha) E_F to the hyperfine splitting of muonium

We present results for the corrections of order alpha^2 (Z alpha) E_F to the hyperfine splitting of muonium. We compute all the contributing Feynman diagrams in dimensional regularization and a general covariant gauge using a mixture of analytical and numerical methods. We improve the precision of previous results.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; v2: corrected several typos and replaced figure 3, final results and conclusions unchange

alpha^2 corrections to parapositronium decay: a detailed description

We present details of our recent calculation of alpha^2 corrections to the parapositronium decay into two photons. These corrections are rather small and our final result for the parapositronium lifetime agrees well with the most recent measurement. Implications for orthopositronium decays are briefly discussed.Comment: 18 pages, late

Two-loop QCD corrections to the heavy quark pair production cross section in e+e- annihilation near the threshold

We present the O(alpha_s) corrections to the cross section for the reaction e+e- --> gamma^* --> Q \bar Q in the energy region close to the threshold. We assume that the energy of the reaction is such that both the perturbative expansion in the strong coupling constant and expansion in the relative velocity of the heavy quarks can be used. We explicitly obtain terms O(alpha_s^2/beta^2, alpha_s^2/beta, alpha_s^2) in the relative correction to the threshold cross section. Using the ideas of asymptotic expansions, we demonstrate how an expansion of Feynman diagrams in the threshold region is constructed. From this analysis we obtain a matching relation between the vector current in full QCD and the quark-antiquark current in NRQCD at leading order in 1/m and the second order in the strong coupling constant.Comment: 9 pages, revte