Determination of the B -> D^*+l-nu Decay Width and |V_{cb}|

Abstract

We determine the CKM matrix element |Vcb| using a sample of 3.33 million BBbar events in the CLEO detector at CESR. We determine the yield of reconstructed B --> D*+ l nu decays as a function of w = v_B . v_D*, and from this we obtain the differential decay rate dΓ/dw. By extrapolating the differential decay rate to w=1, the kinematic point at which the D* is at rest relative to the B, we extract the product |Vcb| F(1), where F(1) is the form factor at w=1 and is predicted accurately by theory. We find |Vcb| F(1) = 0.0424 +- 0.0018(stat.) +- 0.0019(syst.). We also integrate the differential decay rate over w to obtain B(B --> D*+ l nu) = (5.66 +- 0.29 +- 0.33)%. All results are preliminary.