A Closer Look at Perturbative Corrections in the b->c Semileptonic Transitions

We comment on two recent calculations of the second order perturbative corrections in the heavy flavor semileptonic transitions within the Brodsky-Lepage-Mackenzie approach. It is pointed out that the results do not show significant enhancement either in the inclusive $b\rightarrow c$ decays or in the exclusive amplitudes at zero recoil provided that the expansion parameter is chosen in a way appropriate to the kinematics at hand. The values of the second-order coefficients inferred from the BLM-type calculations appear to be of order unity in the both cases. Thus, in both cases no significant uncertainty in extracting $V_{cb}$ can be attributed to perturbative effects. The theoretical accuracy is mostly determined by the existing uncertainty in $1/m_c^2$ nonperturbative corrections in the exclusive $B\rightarrow D^*$ amplitude, and, to a lesser extent, by the uncertainty in the estimated value of the kinetic energy matrix element $\mu_\pi^2$ in the case of $\Gamma_{\rm sl}(b\rightarrow c)$. The theoretical accuracy of the inclusive method of determination of $V_{cb}$ seemingly competes with and even exceeds the experimental accuracy.