Couplings of heavy mesons with soft pions in QCD

QCD sum rules are used to calculate the couplings of heavy-light quark pseudoscalar and vector mesons ($D, D^*$ and $B, B^*$) with soft pions, both for finite and infinitely heavy quark mass. The couplings are also computed in the framework of a QCD relativistic potential model; in this approach the relativistic corrections due to the light quark are relevant.Comment: LaTex, 3 pages, requires the file espcrc2.sty, appended at the end. Talk given at the workshop "QCD-94", Montpellier, France, July 7 -13, 1994. BARI-TH/94-18

On the coupling of heavy mesons to pions in QCD

We compute the strong coupling constant $g_{P^* P \pi}$, with $P$ and $P^*$ respectively pseudoscalar and vector heavy mesons by using the QCD sum rules approach. Our computation is based on the evaluation of the time ordered product of currents between the vacuum and the soft pion state. The so-called parasitic terms are taken into account and give a contribution to the sum rule of the same order of the lowest lying state, while higher dimension non perturbative terms have small numerical effects. The infinite heavy quark mass limit is also examined.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX, UGVA-DPT 1994/06-856 and BARI-TH/94-17

Strong coupling of excited heavy mesons

We compute the strong coupling constant $G_{B^{**} B \pi} \; (G_{D^{**} D \pi})$, where $B^{**}$ ($D^{**}$) is the $0^+$ $P-$wave $b \bar q \; (c \bar q)$ state, by QCD sum rules and by light-cone sum rules. The two methods give compatible results in the limit $m_Q \to \infty$, with a rather large value of the coupling constant. We apply the results to the calculation of the hadronic widths of the positive parity $B$ and $D$ states and to the chiral loop contribution to the ratio $f_{D_s}/f_D$.Comment: 31 pages, RevTeX, 4 figures appended as uuencoded fil

On the b−b- Quark Kinetic Energy in the Λb\Lambda_b

We consider the problem of determining the matrix element of the heavy quark kinetic energy operator between $\Lambda_b$ baryonic states by three point function QCD sum rules in the Heavy Quark Effective Theory. We discuss the main features and the uncertainties associated to such an approach. Numerically, we find the result: ${\langle{\cal K}\rangle}_{\Lambda_b} = - (0.6 \pm 0.1) \; GeV^2$. Within the uncertainty of the method, such result indicates a value of the heavy quark kinetic energy in the baryon similar in size to that in the meson.Comment: RevTex, 13 pages + 3 uuencoded figures. Figures and comments on high dimension operators adde