Renormalization-Mass Scale Dependence in QCD Contributions to Semileptonic $b\to u$ Decay

Abstract

QCD contributions to the $b\to u{\ell }^{-}{\bar{\nu }}_{\ell }$ decay rate, which are known to two-loop order in the $\overline{MS}$ scheme, exhibit sufficient dependence on the renormalization mass $\mu$ to compromise phenomenological predictions for inclusive semileptonic $B\to X_u$ processes. Such scale dependence is ameliorated by the renormalization-group (RG) extraction and summation of all leading and RG-accessible subleading logarithms occurring subsequent to two-loop order in the perturbative series. This optimal RG-improvement of the known portion of the perturbative series virtually eliminates $\mu$-dependence as a source of theoretical uncertainty in the predicted semileptonic $B\to X_u$ inclusive rate.

Comments: 4 pages, latex using espcrc2.sty. Write-up of talk given at BEACH 2002, Vancouver