Measurement of the $B\to D\ell\nu$ Branching Fractions and Form Factor

Abstract

Using a sample of 3.3 million B-meson decays collected with the CLEO detector at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring, we have studied $B^- \to D^0 \ell\nu$ and $\bar{B}^0 \to D^+ \ell\nu$ decays, where $\ell$ can be either an electron or muon. We distinguish $B \to D \ell\nu$ from other B semileptonic decays by examining the net momentum and energy of the particles recoiling against the D-lepton pairs. We find the decay rate $\Gamma(B \to D\ell\nu)$ = (14.1 +- 1.0 +- 1.2) ns-1 and derive branching fractions for $B^- \to D^0 \ell\nu$ and $\bar{B^0} \to D^+ \ell\nu$ of (2.32 +- 0.17 +- 0.20)% and 2.20 +- 0.16 +- 0.19)% respectively, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic. We also investigate the $B \to D \ell\nu$ form factor and the implication of the result for $|V_{cb}|$.