The B_c Meson Lifetime in the Light--Front Constituent Quark Model

Abstract

We present an investigation of the total decay rate of the (ground state) B_c meson within the framework of the relativistic constituent quark model formulated on the light-front (LF). The exclusive semileptonic (SL) and nonleptonic (NL) beauty and charm decays of the B_c meson are described through vector and axial hadronic form factors, which are calculated in terms of a constituent quark model LF wave functions. The latter ones are derived via the Hamiltonian LF formalism using as input the update versions of the constituent quark model. The inclusive SL and NL partial rates are calculated within a convolution approach inspired by the partonic model and involving the same B_c wave function which is used for evaluation of the exclusive modes. The framework incorporates systematically 84 exclusive and 44 inclusive partial rates corresponding to the underlying \bar{b}\to\bar{c} and c\to s quark decays. Based on our approach we find\tau_{B_c}=0.59 \pm 0.06 ps where the theoretical uncertainty is dominated by the uncertainty in the choice of LF wave functions and the threshold values for the hadron continuum. For the branching fractions of the B^+_c \to J/\psi\mu^+\nu_{\mu} and B_c^+\to J/\psi\pi^+ decays we obtain 1.6 % and 0.1 %, respectively.