Covariant Light-Front Approach for $B_c$ transition form factors

TL;DR

This paper calculates $B_c$ meson transition form factors using a covariant light-front model, providing predictions for decay rates and polarizations that can be tested at colliders.

Contribution

It introduces a method to evaluate and extrapolate $B_c$ transition form factors in the covariant light-front framework, including detailed analysis of their dependence on decay constants.

Findings

Form factors in the spacelike region are directly evaluated.

Semileptonic decay branching fractions vary significantly among channels.

Polarization contributions in $B_c$ decays are comparable between longitudinal and transverse modes.

Abstract

In the covariant light-front quark model, we investigate the form factors of $B_c$ decays into $D, D^*, D_s, D_s^*, \eta_c, J/\psi, B, B^*, B_s, B_s^*$ mesons. The form factors in the spacelike region $q^2<0$ are directly evaluated. To extrapolate the form factors to the full kinematic region, we fit the form factors by adopting a three-parameter form from the spacelike region. $b\to u,d,s$ transition form factors at maximally recoiling point ($q^2=0$) are smaller than $b\to c$ and $c\to d,s$ transition form factors, while the $b\to d,s,c$ form factors at zero recoiling point are close to each other. In the fitting procedure, we find the parameters for the form factors $A_2(B_c\to B^*)$ and $A_2(B_c\to B^*_s)$ strongly depend on the decay constants of $B^*$ and $B_s^*$ mesons. Fortunately, the semileptonic and nonleptonic $B_c$ decays are not sensitive to these form factors. With the form factors, we also investigate the branching fractions, polarizations of the semileptonic $B_c\to Ml\nu$ decays. Semileptonic $B_c\to (\eta_c,J/\psi)l\nu$ and $B_c\to (B_s,B_s^*)l\nu$ decays have much larger branching fractions than $B_c\to (D,D^*,B,B^*)l\nu$. In the three kinds of $B_c\to Vl\nu$ decays, contributions from the longitudinal polarized vector is comparable with those from the transversely polarized vector. These predictions will be tested at the ongoing and forthcoming hadron colliders.