Theoretical Update of the Semileptonic Branching Ratio of B Mesons

Abstract

We reconsider the prediction of the semileptonic branching ratio of B mesons, using a recent calculation of the radiative corrections with account for finite quark masses in nonleptonic decays and taking into account 1/m_b^2 corrections. For the semileptonic branching ratio we obtain B_SL =(11.8\pm 1.6)% using pole quark masses and B_SL = (11.0\pm 1.9)% using running MS-bar quark masses. The uncertainty is dominated by unknown higher order perturbative corrections. We conclude that the present accuracy of the theoretical analysis does not allow to state a significant disagreement with the experimental results. However, our re-analysis of the decay b->ccs yields an increase of (35\pm 11)% due to next-to-leading order corrections including mass dependent terms, which further emphasizes the problem of the average charm quark content of the final states in B decays. Abstract of the erratum: Some of the numerical results presented in our paper PLB 342 (1995) 362 are affected by an error in the computer program and need to be revised. The numerical changes are, however, marginal. We take the opportunity to incorporate the complete results for the quark mass dependence of the radiative corrections to the subprocess b->ccs and enlarge the discussion of the average charm quark content in the final state, giving the results in two different renormalization schemes and adding a figure with charm quark content plotted vs. the semileptonic branching ratio.