Hadronic matrix elements and radiative B-->K* gamma decay.

Abstract

Within the standard model, we calculate the radiative $B\rightarrow K^{\star}\gamma$ decay rate based on a Bethe-Salpeter description for the meson wave functions and the hadronic matrix elements. With a reasonable choice of parameters the branching ratio BR($B \rightarrow K^{\star}\gamma$) is found to be $(3.8-4.6)\times 10^{-5}$, which is in agreement with the CLEO experimental data. We also find with $m_{b}=5.12 GeV$ the ratio $R\equiv {\Gamma (B\rightarrow K^{\star}\gamma )}/{\Gamma (b\rightarrow s\gamma )}=(10-12)\%$, which can be slightly larger if a smaller $m_{b}$ is chosen. In this approach, the light degrees of freedom in mesons are treated as light constituent quarks with relativistic kinematics, and the form factors in the decay amplitude are essentially determined by the relativistic kenematics and the overlap of wave functions of the initial and final state mesons. Due to the large recoil momentum of the $K^{\star}$ meson at the $B$ meson rest frame, the form factors are sensitive to the overlap integral of the meson wave functions, which are determined dynamically by a QCD-motivated inter-quark potential. Relativistic effects on the meson wave functions mainly due to the Breit-Fermi interactions are found to be significant in determining the decay rate.