We use recent Belle results on $bar{B}^0rightarrow D^{*+}l^-bar{ u}_l$ decays to extract the CKM element $|V_{cb}|$ with two different but well-founded parameterizations of the form factors. We show that the CLN and BGL parameterizations lead to quite different results for $|V_{cb}|$ and provide a simple explanation of this unexpected behaviour. A long lasting discrepancy between the inclusive and exclusive determinations of $|V_{cb}|$ may have to be thoroughly reconsidered.
In this article, we review the theory and the experimental status of inclusive semileptonic B meson decays B -> Xc l nu. Based on these inputs, we present the latest determination of the magnitude of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element |V_cb
| and of the b-quark mass m_b, obtained by the Heavy Flavor Averaging Group (HFAG).
We present the first lattice QCD calculation of the form factor for B-> D* l nu with three flavors of sea quarks. We use an improved staggered action for the light valence and sea quarks (the MILC configurations), and the Fermilab action for the heav
y quarks. The form factor is computed at zero recoil using a new double ratio method that yields the form factor more directly than the previous Fermilab method. Other improvements over the previous calculation include the use of much lighter light quark masses, and the use of lattice (staggered) chiral perturbation theory in order to control the light quark discretization errors and chiral extrapolation. We obtain for the form factor, F_{B-> D*}(1)=0.921(13)(20), where the first error is statistical and the second is the sum of all systematic errors in quadrature. Applying a 0.7% electromagnetic correction and taking the latest PDG average for F_{B-> D*}(1)|V_cb| leads to |V_cb|=(38.7 +/- 0.9_exp +/- 1.0_theo) x 10^-3.
The vector form factor f_+(t) of the semileptonic decay D -> K l nu, measured recently with a high accuracy, can be used to determine the strong coupling constant g_{D_s^* D K}. The latter is related to the normalised coupling hat{g} releveant in hea
vy-meson chiral perturbation theory. This determination relies on the estimation of the residue of the form factor at the D_s^* pole and thus on an extrapolation of the form factor in the unphysical region (m_D-m_K)^2<t<(m_D+m_K)^2. We test this extrapolation for several parametrisations of the form factors by determining the value of hat{g}, whose value can be compared to other (experimental and theoretical) estimates. Several unsophisticated parametrisations, differing by the amount of physical information that they embed, are shown to pass this test. An apparently more elaborated parametrisation of form factors, the so-called z-expansion, is at variance with the other models, and we point out some significant shortcomings of this parametrisation for the problem under consideration.
We determine the CKM matrix element |Vcb| using a sample of 3.33 million BBbar events in the CLEO detector at CESR. We determine the yield of reconstructed B --> D*+ l nu decays as a function of w = v_B . v_D*, and from this we obtain the differentia
l decay rate dGamma/dw. By extrapolating the differential decay rate to w=1, the kinematic point at which the D* is at rest relative to the B, we extract the product |Vcb| F(1), where F(1) is the form factor at w=1 and is predicted accurately by theory. We find |Vcb| F(1) = 0.0424 +- 0.0018(stat.) +- 0.0019(syst.). We also integrate the differential decay rate over w to obtain B(B --> D*+ l nu) = (5.66 +- 0.29 +- 0.33)%. All results are preliminary.
We calculate, in the continuum limit of quenched lattice QCD, the form factor that enters the decay rate of the semileptonic decay B --> D* l nu. By using the step scaling method (SSM), previously introduced to handle two scale problems in lattice QC
D, and by adopting flavor twisted boundary conditions we extract F(w) at finite momentum transfer and at the physical values of the heavy quark masses. Our results can be used in order to extract the CKM matrix element Vcb by the experimental decay rate without model dependent extrapolations. The value of Vcb agrees with the one obtained from the B --> D l nu channel and makes us confident that the quenched approximation well applies to these transitions.