Large charmless yield inB decays and inclusiveB decay puzzles

Abstract

In recent studies of inclusiveB decays, it has been suggested that eitherB mesons decay much more copiously to final states with no open charm than currently assumed, orB(D ⁰ → K⁻π⁺) has to be reduced significantly. This note takes the experimentalB(D ⁰ → K⁻π⁺) at its face value and estimatesB(b → no open charm) using complementary methods: one accounts for thec quark inb → c transitions, the other accounts for the c quark inb → ccs transitions. Through cancellation of errors, the average gives our best estimate ofB(b → no open charm), and the difference measures the consistency. The results of the methods are consistent with each other, strongly suggesting a much enhancedB(b → no open charm). This observation indicates that non-perturbative QCD effects are probably causing a sizable fraction of theb → ccs transitions to be seen as charmlessb → s processes, contrary to smaller traditional expectations. This mechanism has generally been overlooked and may explain the existing experimental data within the framework of the standard model. We then briefly discuss implications on baryon production governed byb → ccs processes, rare hadronicB decays and CP violation studies.