No Arabic abstract
In this paper we calculate the power corrections to the pion transition form factor within the framework of perturbative QCD approach on the basis of $k_T$ factorization. The power suppressed contributions from higher twist pion wave functions and the hadronic structure of photon are investigated. We find that there exists strong cancellation between the two kinds contributions, thus the total power corrections considered currently are very small, and the prediction of the leading power contribution with joint resummation improved perturbative QCD approach is almost unchanged. This result confirms that the pion transition form factor is a good platform to constrain the nonperturbative parameters in pion wave functions. Moreover, our result can accommodate the anomalous data from BaBar, or agrees with results from Belle according to the choice of Gegebauer moment in the pion wave function, and the more precise experimental data from Belle-II is expected.
We reconsider QCD factorization for the leading power contribution to the $gamma^{ast} gamma to pi^0$ form factor $F_{gamma^{ast} gamma to pi^0} (Q^2)$ at one loop using the evanescent operator approach, and demonstrate the equivalence of the resulting factorization formulae derived with distinct prescriptions of $gamma_5$ in dimensional regularization. Applying the light-cone QCD sum rules (LCSRs) with photon distribution amplitudes (DAs) we further compute the subleading power contribution to the pion-photon form factor induced by the hadronic component of the real photon at the next-to-leading-order in ${cal O}(alpha_s)$, with both naive dimensional regularization and t Hooft-Veltman schemes of $gamma_5$. Confronting our theoretical predictions of $F_{gamma^{ast} gamma to pi^0} (Q^2)$ with the experimental measurements from the BaBar and the Belle Collaborations implies that a reasonable agreement can be achieved without introducing an exotic end-point behaviour for the twist-2 pion DA.
In this paper we investigate the power suppressed contributions from two-particle and three-particle twist-4 light-cone distribution amplitudes (LCDAs) of photon within the framework of light-cone sum rules. Compared with leading twist LCDA result, the contribution from three-particle twist-4 LCDAs is not suppressed in the expansion by $1/Q^2$, so that the power corrections considered in this work can give rise to a sizable contribution, especially at low $Q^2$ region. According to our result, the power suppressed contributions should be included in the determination of the Gegenbauer moments of pion LCDAs with the pion transition form factor.
We compute perturbative QCD corrections to $B to D$ form factors at leading power in $Lambda/m_b$, at large hadronic recoil, from the light-cone sum rules (LCSR) with $B$-meson distribution amplitudes in HQET. QCD factorization for the vacuum-to-$B$-meson correlation function with an interpolating current for the $D$-meson is demonstrated explicitly at one loop with the power counting scheme $m_c sim {cal O} left (sqrt{Lambda , m_b} right ) $. The jet functions encoding information of the hard-collinear dynamics in the above-mentioned correlation function are complicated by the appearance of an additional hard-collinear scale $m_c$, compared to the counterparts entering the factorization formula of the vacuum-to-$B$-meson correction function for the construction of $B to pi$ from factors. Inspecting the next-to-leading-logarithmic sum rules for the form factors of $B to D ell u$ indicates that perturbative corrections to the hard-collinear functions are more profound than that for the hard functions, with the default theory inputs, in the physical kinematic region. We further compute the subleading power correction induced by the three-particle quark-gluon distribution amplitudes of the $B$-meson at tree level employing the background gluon field approach. The LCSR predictions for the semileptonic $B to D ell u$ form factors are then extrapolated to the entire kinematic region with the $z$-series parametrization. Phenomenological implications of our determinations for the form factors $f_{BD}^{+, 0}(q^2)$ are explored by investigating the (differential) branching fractions and the $R(D)$ ratio of $B to D ell u$ and by determining the CKM matrix element $|V_{cb}|$ from the total decay rate of $B to D mu u_{mu}$.
It has been pointed out that the recent BaBar data on the pi gamma^* -> gamma transition form factor F_{pi gamma}(Q^2) at low (high) momentum transfer squared Q^2 indicate an asymptotic (flat) pion distribution amplitude. These seemingly contradictory observations can be reconciled in the k_T factorization theorem: the increase of the measured Q^2F_{pi gamma}(Q^2) for Q^2 > 10 GeV^2 is explained by convoluting a k_T dependent hard kernel with a flat pion distribution amplitude, k_T being a parton transverse momentum. The low Q^2 data are accommodated by including the resummation of alpha_s ln^2x, x being a parton momentum fraction, which provides a stronger suppression at the endpoints of x. The next-to-leading-order correction to the pion transition form factor is found to be less than 20% in the considered range of Q^2.
Recent BaBaR data on the pion transition form factor, whose Q^2 dependence is much steeper then predicted by asymptotic Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), have caused a renewed interest in its theoretical description. We present here a formalism based on a model independent low energy description and a high energy description based on QCD, which match at a scale Q_0. The high energy description incorporates a flat pion distribution amplitude, phi(x)=1, at the matching scale Q_0 and QCD evolution from Q_0 to Q>Q_0. The flat pion distribution is connected, through soft pion theorems and chiral symmetry, to the pion valance parton distribution at the same low scale Q_0. The procedure leads to a good description of the data, and incorporating additional twist three effects, to an excellent description of the data.