Rigorous QCD Predictions for Decays of P-Wave Quarkonia

TL;DR

This paper presents a new QCD-based theoretical framework for accurately predicting decay rates of P-wave heavy quarkonium states, incorporating a novel factorization theorem and phenomenological parameters.

Contribution

It introduces a new factorization theorem valid at leading order in heavy quark velocity and all orders in QCD coupling, improving decay rate predictions for P-wave quarkonia.

Findings

Predicted decay rates for P-wave states using measured data.

Expressed decay rates in terms of two calculable parameters.

Applied predictions to charmonium states with successful results.

Abstract

Rigorous QCD predictions for decay rates of the P-wave states of heavy quarkonia are presented. They are based on a new factorization theorem which is valid to leading order in the heavy quark velocity and to all orders in the running coupling constant of QCD. The decay rates for all four P states into light hadronic or electromagnetic final states are expressed in terms of two phenomenological parameters, whose coefficients are perturbatively calculable. Logarithms of the binding energy encountered in previous perturbative calculations of P-wave decays are factored into a phenomenological parameter that is related to the probability for the heavy quark-antiquark pair to be in a color-octet S-wave state. Applying these predictions to charmonium, we use measured decay rates for the $\chione$ and $\chitwo$ to predict the decay rates of the $\chizero$ and $h_c$.