Analysis of Negative Parity Baryon Photoproduction Amplitudes in the 1/Nc1/N_c Expansion

We study the photoproduction helicity amplitudes of negative parity baryons in the context of the $1/N_c$ expansion of QCD. A complete analysis to next-to-leading order is carried out. The results show sub-leading effects to be within the magnitude expected from the $1/N_c$ power counting. They also show significant deviations from the quark model, in particular the need for 2-body effects.Comment: 7 pages, 5 table

Strong and Electromagnetic Mass Splittings in Heavy Mesons

The contributions to heavy meson mass differences by the strong hyperfine interaction, the light quark masses and the electromagnetic interaction are obtained from the empirical values of the $D$, $D^*$, $B$ and $B^*$ masses by means of a mass formula based on the heavy quark mass expansion. The three different types of contributions are determined with significant accuracy to next to leading order in that expansion.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

1/Nc Countings in Baryons: Mixings and Decays

Based on a valence-quark picture of large Nc baryons, I describe in some detail the 1/Nc power counting for decays and spin-flavor configuration mixings in baryons.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, 2 table

Soft Pion Emission in Semileptonic BB-Meson Decays

An analysis of semileptonic decays of $B$ mesons with the emission of a single soft pion is presented in the framework of the heavy-quark limit using an effective Lagrangian which implements chiral and heavy-quark symmetries. The analysis is performed at leading order of the chiral and inverse heavy mass expansions. In addition to the ground state heavy mesons some of their resonances are included. The estimates of the various effective coupling constants and form factors needed in the analysis are obtained using a chiral quark model. As the main result, a clear indication is found that the $0^{+}$ and $1^{+}$ resonances substantially affect the decay mode with a $D^{\ast}$ in the final state, and a less dramatic effect is also noticed in the $D$ mode. An analysis of the decay spectrum in the $D^{(\ast)}-\pi$ squared invariant mass is carried out, showing the main effects of including the resonances. The obtained rates show promising prospects for studies of soft pion emission in semileptonic $B$-meson decays in a $B$-meson factory where, modulo experimental cuts, about $10^5$ such decays in the $D$ meson mode and $10^4$ in the $D^{\ast}$ mode could be observed per year.Comment: 41 pages, uses revtex, epsf. 16 uuencoded postscript figures appended after `\end{document

Excited [70,ℓ+][{\bf 70},\ell^+] baryon resonances in large NcN_c QCD

We summarize results obtained in the $1/N_c$ expansion method for the masses of baryon resonances belonging to the $[{\bf 70},\ell^+]$ multiplet. They represent an extension of our previous studies from two to three flavors. A better approach to mixed symmetric states of any angular momentum and parity is also outlined.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, uses espcrc2.sty (included), based on a talk given by N. Matagne at the 13th International QCD Conference, QCD06, Montpellier, France, 3-7th July 200