Charm Leptonic and Semileptonic Decays.pdf

a r X i v : h e p - e x / 0 7 0 1 0 1 8 v 2 1 5 J a n 2 0 0 7 Charm Leptonic and Semileptonic Decays P. Zwebera aUniversity of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 USA Experimental results for the pseudoscalar decay constants fD and fDs are reviewed. Semileptonic form factor results from D → (pseudoscalar)lν and D → (vector)lν decays are also reviewed. 1. INTRODUCTION The study of charmed meson decays are im- portant for improving our knowledge of the Stan- dard Model (SM). In particular, the study of lep- tonic and semileptonic decays allow us to mea- sure the CKM matrix elements Vcs and Vcd to a high level of precision. Leptonic and semileptonic decays are also used to test theoretical predic- tions describing the strong interaction (QCD) in heavy quark systems. Charmed meson decays are a good laboratory to test Lattice QCD (LQCD) predictions, which can then be applied with con- fidence to bottom meson decays. Improved theo- retical predictions will not only lower the uncer- tainty in the CKM matrix elements mentioned above but also Vcb and Vub. 2. LEPTONIC DECAYS Leptonic decays of heavy mesons involve the annihilation of the constituent quarks into a neu- trino and charged lepton via a virtual W boson. The probability for the annihilation is propor- tional to the wavefunctions of the quarks at the point of annihilation and is incorporated within the decay constant of the meson. The leptonic decay partial width of the D+(s) meson within the SM is given by [1] Γ(D+(s) → l+ν) = G2 F 8π f 2 D(s) m2lMD(s) ( 1? m2l M2 D(s) ) |Vcd(s)|2, (1) where GF is the Fermi coupling constant, fD (fDs) is the D + (D+s ) decay constant,MD (MDs) is the D+ (D+s ) mass, ml is the mass of the charged lepton, and Vcd (Vcs) is the c→ d (c→ s) CKM transition matrix element. These decays are helicity suppressed and, based on Eq. 1, the SM predicts Γ(D+ → l+ν) = 2.3× 10?5 : 1 : 2.64 and Γ(D+s → l+ν) = 2.3 × 10?5 : 1 : 9.72, with l = e : μ : τ , respectively. Deviations from these pre