QCD in beauty decays: successes and puzzles

Abstract

The status of the heavy quark expansion for inclusive B decays is briefly reviewed from the perspective of confronting theory with data and of extracting the heavy quark parameters. A good agreement between properly applied theory and new precision data is observed. Some recent applications to the exclusive heavy flavor transitions are addressed. I recall the `1/2 > 3/2' paradox for the transitions into the charm P-wave states.