Enhancement of the hadronic b quark decays

Abstract

A class of previously unknown strong-interaction corrections is found to enhance the rate of non-leptonic decays of the b quark by 5-8 percent. This effect decreases the predicted fraction of semi-leptonic decays and brings it into fair agreement with experimental results. As well as solving a long-standing puzzle of measurements disagreeing with the Standard Model prediction, our work suggests a way for future precise studies of non-leptonic $b$ quark decays and their application to searching for "new physics."

5 pages, 3 figures