QCD predictions for annihilation decays of P-wave quarkonia to next-to-leading order in alpha s.

Abstract

The decay rates of {ital P}-wave heavy quarkonia to light hadrons are presented to leading order in {ital v}{sup 2} and next-to-leading order in {alpha}{sub {ital s}}. They include contributions from both the color-singlet component and the color-octet component of quarkonia. Applying these results to charmonium and using measured decay rates for the {chi}{sub {ital c}1} and {chi}{sub {ital c}2} by E760, we determine the two nonperturbative decay matrix elements, and then predict the hadronic decay rates of {chi}{sub {ital c}0} and {ital h}{sub {ital c}}, and the electromagnetic decay rates of {chi}{sub {ital c}0} and {chi}{sub {ital c}2}. The obtained decay rates of {chi}{sub {ital c}0}{r_arrow}{ital LH} and {chi}{sub {ital c}0}{r_arrow}{gamma}{gamma} are in agreement with the Crystal Ball results, and also with the new measurements by BES. However, the results for {Gamma}({chi}{sub {ital c}0}{r_arrow}{ital LH}) are dependent on the choice of renormalization scale. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}