Recent Developments in the Theory of Heavy-Quark Decays
Abstract
I report on recent developments in the heavy-quark effective theory and its application to B meson decays. The parameters of the effective theory, the spin-flavor symmetry limit, and the leading symmetry-breaking corrections to it are discussed. The results of a QCD sum rule analysis of the universal Isgur-Wise functions that appear at leading and subleading order in the 1/mQ expansion are presented. I illustrate the phenomenological applications of this formalism by focusing on two specific examples: the determination of Vcb from the endpoint spectrum in semileptonic decays, and the study of spin-symmetry violating effects in ratios of form factors. I also briefly comment on nonleptonic decays.
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