Leptonic and semileptonic decays of charm and bottom hadrons

Jeffrey D. Richman and Patricia R. Burchat
Rev. Mod. Phys. 67, 893 – Published 1 October 1995
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Abstract

The authors review the experimental measurements and theoretical descriptions of leptonic and semileptonic decays of particles containing a single heavy quark, either charm or bottom. Measurements of bottom semileptonic decays are used to determine the magnitudes of two fundamental parameters of the standard model, the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements Vcb and Vub. These parameters are connected with the physics of quark flavor and mass, and they have important implications for the breakdown of CP symmetry. To extract precise values of |Vcb| and |Vub| from measurements, however, requires a good understanding of the decay dynamics. Measurements of both charm and bottom decay distributions provide information on the interactions governing these processes. The underlying weak transition in each case is relatively simple, but the strong interactions that bind the quarks into hadrons introduce complications. The authors also discuss new theoretical approaches, especially heavy-quark effective theory and lattice QCD, which are providing insights and predictions now being tested by experiment. An international effort at many laboratories will rapidly advance knowledge of this area of physics during the next decade.

    DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.67.893

    ©1995 American Physical Society

    Authors & Affiliations

    Jeffrey D. Richman*

    • Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106

    Patricia R. Burchat

    • Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305

    • *Electronic address: richman@charm.physics.ucsb.edu
    • Electronic address: pat@slac.stanford.edu

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    Issue

    Vol. 67, Iss. 4 — October - December 1995

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