Non-Leptonic Weak Decays of B Mesons

Abstract

We present a detailed study of non-leptonic two-body decays of B mesons based on a generalized factorization hypothesis. We discuss the structure of non-factorizable corrections and present arguments in favour of a simple phenomenological description of their effects. To evaluate the relevant transition form factors in the factorized decay amplitudes, we use information extracted from semileptonic decays and incorporate constraints imposed by heavy-quark symmetry. We discuss tests of the factorization hypothesis and show how unknown decay constants may be determined from non-leptonic decays. In particular, we find f_{Ds}=(234+-25) MeV and f_{Ds*}=(271+-33) MeV.