Heavy-to-light meson form factors at large recoil

Abstract

Heavy-to-light meson form factors at large recoil can be described using the same techniques as for hard exclusive processes involving only light hadrons. Two competing mechanisms appear in the large-recoil regime, describing so-called ``soft-overlap'' and ``hard-scattering'' components of the form factors. It is shown how existing experimental data from B and D decays constrain the relative size of these components, and how lattice data can be used to study properties such as the energy scaling laws obeyed by the individual components. Symmetry relations between different form factors (F_+, F_0 and F_T), and between different heavy initial-state mesons (B and D), are derived in the combined heavy-quark and large-recoil limits, and are shown to generalize corresponding relations valid at small recoil. Form factor parameterizations that are consistent with the large-recoil limit are discussed.