QCD corrections to $B to pi$ form factors from light-cone sum rules

We compute perturbative corrections to $B to pi$ form factors from QCD light-cone sum rules with $B$-meson distribution amplitudes. Applying the method of regions we demonstrate factorization of the vacuum-to-$B$-meson correlation function defined with an interpolating current for pion, at one-loop level, explicitly in the heavy quark limit. The short-distance functions in the factorization formulae of the correlation function involves both hard and hard-collinear scales; and these functions can be further factorized into hard coefficients by integrating out the hard fluctuations and jet functions encoding the hard-collinear information. Resummation of large logarithms in the short-distance functions is then achieved via the standard renormalization-group approach. We further show that structures of the factorization formulae for $f_{B pi}^{+}(q^2)$ and $f_{B pi}^{0}(q^2)$ at large hadronic recoil from QCD light-cone sum rules match that derived in QCD factorization. In particular, we perform an exploratory phenomenological analysis of $B to pi$ form factors, paying attention to various sources of perturbative and systematic uncertainties, and extract $|V_{ub}|= left(3.05^{+0.54}_{-0.38} |_{rm th.} pm 0.09 |_{rm exp.}right) times 10^{-3}$ with the inverse moment of the $B$-meson distribution amplitude $phi_B^{+}(omega)$ determined by reproducing $f_{B pi}^{+}(q^2=0)$ obtained from the light-cone sum rules with $pi$ distribution amplitudes. Furthermore, we present the invariant-mass distributions of the lepton pair for $B to pi ell u_{ell}$ ($ell= mu ,, tau$) in the whole kinematic region. Finally, we discuss non-valence Fock state contributions to the $B to pi$ form factors $f_{B pi}^{+}(q^2)$ and $f_{B pi}^{0}(q^2)$ in brief.