Role of "Intrinsic Charm" in Semi-Leptonic B-Meson Decays

Abstract

We discuss the role of so-called "intrinsic-charm" operators in semi-leptonic B-meson decays, which appear first at order 1/m_b^3 in the heavy quark expansion. We show by explicit calculation that -- at scales mu <= m_c -- the contributions from "intrinsic-charm" effects can be absorbed into short-distance coefficient functions multiplying, for instance, the Darwin term. Then, the only remnant of "intrinsic charm" are logarithms of the form ln(m_c^2/m_b^2), which can be resummed by using renormalization-group techniques. As long as the dynamics at the charm-quark scale is perturbative, alpha_s(m_c) << 1, this implies that no additional non-perturbative matrix elements aside from the Darwin and the spin-orbit term have to be introduced at order 1/m_b^3. Hence, no sources for additional hadronic uncertainties have to be taken into account. Similar arguments may be made for higher orders in the 1/m_b expansion.