Related papers: The QCD Perspective on Lifetimes of Heavy-Flavour …
A theoretical treatment for the weak decays of heavy-flavour hadrons has been developed that is genuinely based on QCD. Its methodology as it applies to total lifetimes and the underlying theoretical issues are sketched. Predictions are…
The problem of the hierarchy of lifetimes of charmed hadrons is reviewed. The QCD-based theory of preasymptotic effects in inclusive weak decays dating back to the beginning of the eighties is now entering its mature phase. Combining recent…
We present the theoretical status of the lifetimes of weakly decaying heavy hadrons containing a bottom or a charm quark, and discuss the current predictions, based on the framework of the Heavy Quark Expansion (HQE), for both mesons and…
Inclusive heavy-flavour decays can be described through $1/m_Q$ expansions derived from QCD with the help of an operator product expansion. I sketch their methodology and apply them first to semileptonic B decays; $|V(cb)|$ can be extracted…
`Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old' Franz Kafka. In the last few years considerable progress has been achieved in our understanding of the decays of heavy flavour hadrons. One can now calculate inclusive transition…
The heavy quark expansion implemented through an operator product expansion provides us with a treatment of inclusive decays of beauty and charm hadrons that is genuinely derived from QCD,though it requires one additional assumption, namely…
The status of heavy quark expansions for charm and beauty lifetime ratios is reviewed. Taking note of the surprising semiquantitative success of this description for charm hadrons I interprete the new data on $\tau (D_s)$ and re-iterate the…
There now exist several theoretical technologies for treating weak decays of heavy flavour hadrons that are genuinely based on QCD without having to invoke a deus ex machina. I focus on one of those, which employs an expansion in inverse…
A phenomenological analysis of lifetimes of bottom and charmed hadrons within the framework of the heavy quark expansion is performed. The baryon matrix element is evaluated using the bag model and the nonrelativistic quark model. We find…
I review new results on particles containing a charm or bottom quark, focusing on measurements that give insight into the dynamics of the decay process. Leptonic and semileptonic decays are the simplest modes, and they provide detailed…
Second-generation theoretical technologies -- heavy quark expansions, QCD sum rules and QCD simulations on the lattice -- are arriving on the scene, allowing a treatment of charm decays that is genuinely based on QCD. The availability of…
We provide updated predictions of the lifetimes of singly charmed baryons and mesons within the heavy quark expansion, with all known corrections included. A special attention is devoted to the choice of the charm mass and wavefunctions of…
I give an introduction to the QCD-based theory of the heavy flavor hadrons and their weak decays. Trying to remain at the next-to-elementary level and skip technicalities, I concentrate on the qualitative description of the most important…
After a short review of the theoretical tools available to describe heavy flavour physics I sketch the present profile of the weak dynamics of charm hadrons with respect to lifetimes, oscillations and CP violation. I argue that…
I review the status of the modern theoretical approach to weak decays of heavy flavor hadrons based on the 1/m_Q expansion in QCD. The qualitative features are explained and the subtleties in simultaneously incorporating perturbative and…
We review current status of theoretical predictions of lifetimes of heavy hadrons in heavy-quark expansion. We present a calculation of subleading 1/m_b corrections to spectator effects in the ratios of beauty hadron lifetimes. We find that…
Theoretical descriptions for the nonleptonic decays of heavy flavour hadrons have emerged that incorporate non-perturbative corrections in a systematic way and are genuinely based on QCD. One can reproduce $\tau (D^+)/\tau (D^0)$,…
Recent measurements of lifetimes of some $b$-flavored hadrons are presented and interpreted in the context of theoretical models, especially the Heavy Quark Expansion. Decay widths and decay width differences in the $B_s^0-\overline{B}_s^0$…
We provide an extensive study of the lifetimes of singly charmed baryons and mesons, within the heavy quark expansion with all known corrections included. A special attention is devoted to the choice of the charm mass and wavefunctions of…
The current status of the theory and phenomenology of weak decays of hadrons containing a heavy quark is reviewed. Exclusive semileptonic and rare decays of $B$ mesons are discussed, as well as inclusive decay rates, the semileptonic…