Radiative and semileptonic B meson decay spectra: Sudakov resummation beyond logarithmic accuracy and the pole mass.

Abstract

The inclusive spectra of radiative and semi-leptonic B–meson decays near the endpoint is computed taking into account renormalons in the Sudakov exponent (Dressed Gluon Exponentiation). In this framework we demonstrate the factorization of decay spectra into hard, jet and soft functions and discuss the universality of the latter two. Going beyond perturbation theory the soft function, which we identify as the longitudinal momentum distribution in an on-shell b quark, is replaced by the b–quark distribution in the B meson. The two differ by power corrections. We show how the resummation of running–coupling effects can be used to perform consistent separation to power accuracy between perturbative and non-perturbative contributions. In particular, we prove that the leading infrared renormalon ambiguity in the Sudakov exponent cancels against the one associated with the definition of the pole mass. This cancellation allows us to identify the non-perturbative parameter that controls the shift of the perturbative spectrum in the heavy–quark limit as the mass difference between the meson and the quark.