Lifetimes of heavy hadrons

Abstract

We review current status of theoretical predictions of lifetimes of heavy hadrons in heavy-quark expansion. We present a calculation of subleading 1/m_b corrections to spectator effects in the ratios of beauty hadron lifetimes. We find that these effects are sizable and should be taken into account in systematic analyses of heavy hadron lifetimes. In particular, the inclusion of 1/m_b corrections brings into agreement the theoretical predictions and experimental observations of the ratio of lifetimes of Lambda_b-baryon and B_d meson. We obtain \tau(B_u)/\tau(B_d) = 1.09 \pm 0.03, \tau(B_s)/\tau(B_d)= 1.00 \pm 0.01, \tau(\Lambda_b)/\tau(B_d)= 0.87 \pm 0.05.

Comments: 10 pages, 4 figures. Invited talk at the workshop `Continuous Advances in QCD 2004', Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 13-16 2004