The Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix element $vert V_{cb}vert$ is extracted from exclusive semileptonic $B to D^{(*)}$ decays adopting a novel unitarity-based approach which allows to determine in a full non-perturbative way the relevant hadronic form factors (FFs) in the whole kinematical range. By using existing lattice computations of the $B to D^{(*)}$ FFs at small recoil, we show that it is possible to extrapolate their behavior also at large recoil without assuming any specific momentum dependence. Thus, we address the extraction of $vert V_{cb}vert$ from the experimental data on the semileptonic $B to D^{(*)} ell u_ell$, obtaining $vert V_{cb}vert = (40.7 pm 1.2 ) cdot 10^{-3}$ from $B to D$ and $vert V_{cb}vert = (40.6 pm 1.6 ) cdot 10^{-3}$ from $B to D^*$. Our results, though still based on preliminary lattice data for the $B to D^*$ form factors, are consistent within $sim 1$ standard deviation with the most recent inclusive determination $vert V_{cb} vert_{incl} = (42.00 pm 0.65) cdot 10^{-3}$. We investigate also the issue of Lepton Flavor Universality thanks to new theoretical estimates of the ratios $R(D^{(*)})$, namely $R(D) = 0.289(8)$ and $R(D^{*}) = 0.249(21)$. Our findings differ respectively by $sim 1.6sigma$ and $sim1.8sigma$ from the latest experimental determinations.
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