The ACCMM Model and the Heavy Quark Expansion

Abstract

The ACCMM model predicts the lepton spectrum from $B$ meson decay by assuming the meson disintegrates into a spectator quark of definite mass and momentum distribution and an off shell $b$ quark whose decay leptons (boosted into the rest frame of the meson) determine the lepton spectrum. In this letter, we show that one can define a model dependent $b$ quark mass so that the spectrum derived from the ACCMM model agrees very well with the free quark decay spectrum far from the endpoint. Near the endpoint, there is some disagreement, indicating the result is more model dependent. The integrated spectra are however very nearly identical. These results are in accordance with expectations based on the heavy quark effective theory. The detailed analytic study of this model helps elucidate the HQET result, and in particular the meaning of the $b$ quark mass. We conclude that for LEP experiments, free quark decay might be as general and more simple than the ACCMM ansatz for modeling the inclusive charged lepton spectrum from $B$ meson decay.