Hadronic decays of $B\to a_1(1260)b_1(1235)$ in the perturbative QCD approach

Abstract

We calculate the branching ratios and polarization fractions of the $B\to a_1{b}_1$ decays in the perturbative QCD(pQCD) approach at leading order, where $a_1$($b_1$) stands for the axial-vector $a_1(1260)[b_1(1235)]$ state. By combining the phenomenological analyses with the perturbative calculations, we find the following results: (a) the large decay rates around $10^{-5}$ to $10^{-6}$ of the $B\to a_1{b}_1$ decays dominated by the longitudinal polarization(except for the $B^{+}\to b_1^{+}{a}_1^0$ mode) are predicted and basically consistent with those in the QCD factorization(QCDF) within errors, which are expected to be tested by the Large Hadron Collider and Belle-II experiments. The large $B^0\to a_1^0{b}_1^0$ branching ratio could provide hints to help explore the mechanism of the color-suppressed decays. (b) the rather different QCD behaviors between the $a_1$ and $b_1$ mesons result in the destructive(constructive) contributions in the nonfactorizable spectator diagrams with $a_1(b_1)$ emission. Therefore, an interesting pattern of the branching ratios appears for the color-suppressed $B^0\to a_1^0{a}_1^0,a_1^0{b}_1^0,$ and $b_1^0{b}_1^0$ modes in the pQCD approach, $Br(B^0\to b_1^0{b}_1^0)>Br(B^0\to a_1^0{b}_1^0)\gtrsim Br(B^0\to a_1^0{a}_1^0)$, which is different from $Br(B^0\to b_1^0{b}_1^0)\sim Br(B^0\to a_1^0{b}_1^0)\gtrsim Br(B^0\to a_1^0{a}_1^0)$ in the QCDF and would be verified at future experiments. (c) the large naive factorization breaking effects are observed in these $B\to a_1{b}_1$ decays. Specifically, the large nonfactorizable spectator(weak annihilation) amplitudes contribute to the $B^0\to b_1^{+}{a}_1^{-}(B^{+}\to a_1^{+}{b}_1^0\mathrm{and}{B}^{+}\to b_1^{+}{a}_1^0)$ mode(s), which demand confirmations via the precise measurements.

Comments: 13 pages, 1 figure, 5 tables, revtex file