$\Lambda_b\to p$ transition form factors in perturbative QCD

Abstract

We reanalyze the $\Lambda_b\to p$ transition form factors in the perturbative QCD (PQCD) approach by including higher-twist light-cone distribution amplitudes (LCDAs) of a $\Lambda_b$ baryon and a proton. The previous PQCD evaluation performed decades ago with only the leading-twist $\Lambda_b$ baryon and proton LCDAs gave the form factors, which are two orders of magnitude smaller than indicated by experimental data. We find that the twist-4 $\Lambda_b$ baryon LCDAs and the twist-4 and -5 proton LCDAs contribute dominantly, and the enhanced form factors become consistent with those from lattice QCD and other nonperturbative methods. The estimated branching ratios of the semileptonic decays $\Lambda_b\to p\ell\bar{\nu}_\ell$ and the hadronic decay $\Lambda_b\to p\pi$ are also close to the data. It implies that the $b$ quark mass is not really heavy enough, and higher-power contributions play a crucial role, similar to the observation made in analyses of $B$ meson transition form factors. With the formalism established in this work, we are ready to study various exclusive heavy baryon decays systematically in the PQCD approach.