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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14361 |
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| _version_ | 1866917214249025536 |
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| author | Cornella, Claudia Ferré, Max König, Matthias Neubert, Matthias |
| author_facet | Cornella, Claudia Ferré, Max König, Matthias Neubert, Matthias |
| contents | We derive the QCD$\times$QED factorization theorem governing the leptonic decay $B^-\toμ^-\barν_μ(γ)$ at all orders in $α_s$ and $α$. Electromagnetic corrections to this decay probe multiple scales, which we disentangle through a sequence of effective field theories (EFTs). The resulting state-of-the-art prediction for the photon-vetoed rate includes the complete structure-dependent component and is accurate at the percent level, establishing the theoretical framework required for future high-precision measurements of this channel, which will allow for a clean determination of $|V_{ub}|$ and powerful tests of new physics. Our work presents the first complete study of QED effects to an exclusive $B$-meson decay at next-to-leading power (NLP) in the heavy-quark expansion. Important milestones are (i) the construction of the complete NLP operator basis in soft-collinear effective theory (SCET); (ii) the proposal of a "SCET-friendly" reduction scheme for the Dirac structures of four-fermion operators in dimensional regularization, which avoids power-enhanced evanescent operators; (iii) the consistent refactorization of endpoint-divergent convolution integrals and the first complete resummation of "rapidity logarithms" arising at the boundary between the contributions involving soft and hard-collinear quarks; (iv) the systematic discussion of the EFT below the scale of QCD confinement and the non-perturbative matching of SCET onto this low-energy theory; (v) the decoupling of pseudoscalar mesons in the context of heavy-hadron chiral perturbation theory, so that they can be integrated out for processes in which they do not appear as external particles. We perform a phenomenological analysis of direct and indirect contributions to the decay rate and radiation-energy spectrum, highlighting the importance of the chiral anomaly. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_14361 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | The Simplest B Decay, Precisely Cornella, Claudia Ferré, Max König, Matthias Neubert, Matthias High Energy Physics - Phenomenology We derive the QCD$\times$QED factorization theorem governing the leptonic decay $B^-\toμ^-\barν_μ(γ)$ at all orders in $α_s$ and $α$. Electromagnetic corrections to this decay probe multiple scales, which we disentangle through a sequence of effective field theories (EFTs). The resulting state-of-the-art prediction for the photon-vetoed rate includes the complete structure-dependent component and is accurate at the percent level, establishing the theoretical framework required for future high-precision measurements of this channel, which will allow for a clean determination of $|V_{ub}|$ and powerful tests of new physics. Our work presents the first complete study of QED effects to an exclusive $B$-meson decay at next-to-leading power (NLP) in the heavy-quark expansion. Important milestones are (i) the construction of the complete NLP operator basis in soft-collinear effective theory (SCET); (ii) the proposal of a "SCET-friendly" reduction scheme for the Dirac structures of four-fermion operators in dimensional regularization, which avoids power-enhanced evanescent operators; (iii) the consistent refactorization of endpoint-divergent convolution integrals and the first complete resummation of "rapidity logarithms" arising at the boundary between the contributions involving soft and hard-collinear quarks; (iv) the systematic discussion of the EFT below the scale of QCD confinement and the non-perturbative matching of SCET onto this low-energy theory; (v) the decoupling of pseudoscalar mesons in the context of heavy-hadron chiral perturbation theory, so that they can be integrated out for processes in which they do not appear as external particles. We perform a phenomenological analysis of direct and indirect contributions to the decay rate and radiation-energy spectrum, highlighting the importance of the chiral anomaly. |
| title | The Simplest B Decay, Precisely |
| topic | High Energy Physics - Phenomenology |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14361 |