Search

We calculate the form factors $F_{V}(q^2,q'^2)$ and $F_{TV}(q^2,q'^2)$ describing the $B_s\to \gamma^*$ transition induced by the vector and tensor weak currents in a broad range of values of $q^2$ and $q'^2$ far below the quark thresholds in both $q^2$ and $q'^2$ channels. These form factors are calculated via the distribution amplitudes of the $B_s$-meson. We then interpolate the obtained results by a formula that contains pole at $q'^2=M_\phi^2$ and extract the residue which gives the $B_s\to \phi$ transition form factors $V(q^2)$ and $T_1(q^2)$. In this way we obtain theoretical predictions for these form factors without invoking quark-hadron duality and QCD sum rules. Furthermore, we calculate the relationship between $V(0)$ and $T_1(0)$ and the parameter $\lambda_{B_s}(\mu)$, the inverse moment of the $B_s$-meson distribution amplitude. Using the available predictions for $V(0)$ and $T_1(0)$ coming from approaches not referring to the $B_s$-meson distribution amplitudes, we obtain the estimate $\lambda_{B_s}(\mu\simeq m_b)=(0.62\pm 0.10)$ GeV., Comment: 11 pages

We present the first theoretical calculation of nonfactorizable charm-quark loop contributions to the $B_s\to \gamma l^+l^-$ amplitude. We calculate the relevant form factors, $H_{A,V}^{\rm NF}(k'^2,k^2)$, and provide convenient parametrizations of our results in the form of fit functions of two variables, $k'^2$ and $k^2$, applicable in the region below hadron resonances, $k'^2 < M_{J/\psi}^2$ and $k^2 < M_{\phi}^2$. We report that factorizable and nonfactorizable charm contributions to the $B_s\to\gamma l^+l^-$ amplitude have opposite signs. To compare the charm and the top contributions, it is convenient to express the NF charming loop contribution as a non-universal (i.e., dependent on the reaction) $q^2$-dependent correction $\Delta^{\rm NF}C_7(q^2)$ to the Wilson coefficient $C_7$. For the $B_s\to\gamma l^+l^-$ amplitude, the correction is found to be positive, $\Delta^{\rm NF} C_7(q^2)/C_7 > 0$., Comment: 18 pages. Added Appendix D and a few references. Version to appear in PRD. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1712.07926, arXiv:2309.00358

Recently, Belle II reported the observation of the decay $B\to K M_X$, $M_X$ the missing mass, with the branching ratio much exceeding ${\cal B}(B\to K \nu\bar\nu)$ which is the only Standard Model (SM) process contributing to this reaction. If confirmed, this might be an indication of new nonSM particles produced in this decay. One of the possible explanations of the observed effect could be light dark-matter (DM) particles produced via a scalar mediator field. We give simple arguments, that a combined analysis of the $B\to K M_X$ and $B\to K^* M_X$ reactions would be a clean probe of the scalar mediator scenario: (i) making use of an observed value ${\cal B}(B\to K M_X)\simeq 5.4\, {\cal B}(B\to K \nu\bar\nu)_{\rm SM}$ and (ii) assuming that the effect is due to the light dark matter coupling to the top quark via a {\it scalar} mediator field, one finds an upper limit ${\cal B}(B\to K^* M_X) < 2.8 \, {\cal B}(B\to K^* \nu\bar\nu)_{\rm SM}$. Within the discussed scenario, this upper limit does not depend on the mass of the scalar mediator nor on the specific details of the unobserved dark-matter particles in the final state., Comment: 4 pages, version to be published in EPL

We present a detailed theoretical study of nonfactorizable contributions of the charm-quark loop to the amplitude of the $B_s\to \gamma\,\gamma$ decay. This contribution involves the $B$-meson three-particle Bethe-Salpeter amplitude, $\langle 0|\bar s(y)G_{\mu\nu}(x)b(0)|\bar B_s(p)\rangle$, for which we take into account constraints from analyticity and continuity. The charming-loop contribution of interest may be described as a correction to the Wilson coefficient $C_{7\gamma}$, $C_{7\gamma}\to C_{7\gamma}(1+\delta C_{7\gamma})$. We calculate an explicit dependence of $\delta C_{7\gamma}$ on the parameter $\lambda_{B_s}$. Taking into account all theoretical uncertainties, $\delta C_{7\gamma}$ may be predicted with better than 10\% accuracy for any given value of $\lambda_{B_s}$. For our benchmark point $\lambda_{B_s}=0.45$ GeV, we obtain $\delta C_{7\gamma}=0.045\pm 0.004$. Presently, $\lambda_{B_s}$ is not known with high accuracy, but its value is expected to lie in the range $0.3\le \lambda_{B_s}({\rm GeV})\le 0.6$. The corresponding range of $\delta C_{7\gamma}$ is found to be $0.02\le \delta C_{7\gamma}\le 0.1$. One therefore expects the correction given by charming loops at the level of at least a few percent., Comment: 21 pages, version to be published in Physical Review D

We discuss a nonfactorizable (NF) contribution of a charm loop to the FCNC $B$-decay amplitude given through the three-particle Bethe-Salpeter amplitude (3BS) of the $B$-meson. This 3BS contains one heavy-quark field and two light fields (a light quark and a gluon). Our discussion is aimed at clarifying properties of the $B$-meson 3BS necessary to describe properly charm-loop contributions to the amplitudes of FCNC $B$-decays. We demonstrate that the dominant contribution of nonfactorizable charm to FCNC $B$-decay amplitude is given in the heavy-quark limit by a convolution of some hard kernel and the $B$-meson 3BS in a "double-collinear" light cone (LC) configuration: one of the light degrees of freedom $\phi(x)$, $x^2=0$, lies on the $(+)$-direction of the LC, whereas another light degree of freedom $\phi'(x')$, $x'^2=0$ lies on the $(-)$-direction. We show the emergence of new constraints on the distribution amplitudes which parametrize the 3BS in this double-collinear configuration., Comment: 12 pages, a few typos corrected, version to appear in PRD

Aiming at self-consistent descriptions of multiquark hadrons (such as tetraquarks, pentaquarks, hexaquarks) by means of QCD sum rules, we note that the totality of contributions to two-point or three-point correlation functions that involve, respectively, either two or just a single operator capable of interpolating the particular multiquark under study can be straightforwardly disentangled into two disjoint classes defined by unambiguously identifiable members. The first is formed by so-called multiquark-phile contributions which indeed might support multiquarks. In the case of flavour-exotic tetraquarks, by definition composed of four (anti-) quarks of mutually different flavours, a tetraquark-phile contribution has to exhibit two or more gluon exchanges of appropriate topology. The second consists of contributions evidently not bearing any relation to multiquarks; these must be discarded when studying multiquarks by QCD sum rules. The first class only should enter the "multiquark-adequate" QCD sum rules for exotic hadrons., Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, contributed to "XVth Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum" (1 - 6 August 2022, Stavanger, Norway)

We propose to increase the factual reliability of descriptions of exotic multiquark hadrons utilizing the approach to bound states of strongly interacting constituents known as QCD sum rules, by allowing exclusively all contributions that potentially bear some relevance for multiquark states to enter the correlation functions that form the main ingredient of this framework. The route to this goal is illustrated for the (presumably least involved) special case of tetraquark states., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures

We compare a non-factorizable charming-loop correction to an exclusive FCNC $B$-decay given in terms of the 3-particle Bethe-Salpeter amplitude (3BS) of the $B$-meson, $\langle 0|\bar q(x)G_{\mu\nu}(z)b(0)|B(p)\rangle$, with the corresponding correction to the $B$-meson semileptonic form factor. In spite of certain similarities, these two corrections are shown to have substantial differences: The form factor correction is dominated by the collinear light-cone configuration of 3BS: $z_\mu= u x_\mu$, $0 < u < 1$, $x^2=0$. In contrast, the FCNC amplitude is dominated by a different configuration with non-collinear arguments: $x^2=0$, $z^2=0$, but $(x-z)^2\ne 0$ (i.e., $z_\mu\ne u x_\mu$)., Comment: 10 pages, a few comments added, version accepted to PRD

We study the effects of the identical leptons in the final state of the $B^+\to \ell^+ \ell^- \ell^+\bar\nu_{\ell}$ decay. The amplitude of the process is described by the same form factors as the amplitude of the ${B\to \ell \ell \ell'\bar\nu'_{\ell}}$ decay for non-identical leptons in the final state. However, the differential distributions are strongly different, as the ${B^+\to \ell^+ \ell^- \ell^+\bar\nu_{\ell}}$ amplitude contains both the direct ($M_a$) and the exchange ($M_b$) diagrams. We calculate a number of the differential distirbutions. In particular, we propose an interesting observable that can be readily measured experimentally - the differential distribution over the invariant mass of the pair of leptons of the same charge, $\ell^+ \ell^+$. The good news is that the interference between $M_a$ and $M_b$, $d{\cal B}_{ab}$, is found to be at the level of less than 1\% in all considered differental distributions and therefore can be neglected in the full kinematical region of this decay., Comment: 9 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2107.07247

If connecting properties of a multiquark hadron with those exhibited by its constituents, QCD sum rules inferred along the routes of traditional wisdom necessarily involve contributions not related at all to and thus not presenting information about multiquarks. Realizing this deficiency, we propose to increase, for the example of tetraquarks, the predictive power of the QCD sum-rule formalism by disposal of all of the unwanted contributions from the very beginning; this move is easily accomplished by subjecting the contributions to our perspicuous selection criterion., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, talk presented at the "Hadron 2021 - 19th International Conference on Hadron Spectroscopy and Structure" (26 - 31 July 2021, Mexico City, Mexico)

We discuss the amplitude of the $B\to l^+l^-l'\nu'$ decays and the differential decay rate $d^2\Gamma/dq^2dq'^2$, $q$ the momentum of the $l^+l^-$ pair emitted from the electromagnetic vertex and $q'$ the momentum of the $l'\nu'$ pair emitted from the weak vertex. For the relevant form factors, we construct dispersion representations in $q^2$ which consistently take into account the Ward identity constraints at $q^2=0$ and the contributions of light vector resonances. This allows a reliable description of the form factors in the range $0 < q^2 \le 1$ GeV$^2$ that saturates around 99% of the decay rate. The differential decay rate behaves at small $q^2$ as $d\Gamma(B\to l^+l^-l' \nu')/dq^2\propto 1/q^2$ in the limit $m'_l=0$, but contains also more singlular contribution of order ${m'^2_l}/q^4$, which we take into account. For the case $m_l'\le m_l$, the latter may be neglected and one obtains a mild logarithmic dependence of $\Gamma(B\to l^{+}l^{-}l'\nu')$ on $m_l$. For the case $m_l\ll m'_l$, however, the ${m'^2_l}/q^4$ terms dominate the decay rate leading to $\Gamma(B\to l^{+}l^{-}l'\nu')\sim m'^2_l/m^2_l$. We find the following features of the four-lepton $B$-decays: (i) The decay rates $\Gamma\left(B\to \mu^+\mu^-(\mu \nu_\mu,e\nu_e)\right)$ are fully dominated by the region of light vector resonances $q^2\simeq M_\rho^2, M_\omega^2$; (ii) The decay rate $\Gamma(B\to e^{+}e^{-}e \nu_e)$ receives comparable contributions from the region near $q^2\sim 4m_e^2$ and from the resonance region; (iii) One finds a strong enhancement of the decay rate $\Gamma(B\to e^+e^- \mu \nu_\mu)\sim m_\mu^2/m_e^2$ which is dominated by the region $q^2\sim 4m_e^2$ due to the terms $O(m_\mu^2/q^4)$ in the differential distribution., Comment: 14 pages. The branching fractions for the leptonic B decays into the final states containing identical leptons have been updated. Version to appear in Physical Review D

The present work reviews the various aspects of the extension of the large-$N_c$ approach, as had been proposed and developed by 't Hooft, to the case of tetraquark states, which are a category of the general class of exotic states, also called multiquark states, whose internal valence-quark structure does not match with that of ordinary hadrons, and which have received, in recent years, many experimental confirmations. The primary question of describing, or probing, on theoretical grounds, multiquark states is first examined. The signature of such states inside Feynman diagrams in relation with their singularities is highlighted. The main mechanisms of formation of tetraquark states, provided by the diquark model and the molecular scheme, are considered together with their specific implications. The properties of tetraquark states at large $N_c$ are analyzed through the Feynman diagrams that describe two-meson scattering amplitudes. It turns out that, in that limit, the possible formation of tetraquark states is mainly due to the mutual interactions of their internal mesonic clusters. These essentially arise from the quark-rearrangement, or quark-interchange, mechanism. In coupled-channel meson-meson scattering amplitudes, one may expect the occurrence of two independent tetraquark states, each having priviledged couplings with the two mesons of their dominant channel. The question of the energy balance of various schemes in the static limit is also analyzed. The clarification of the mechanisms that are at work in the formation of tetraquarks is the main outcome from the large-$N_c$ approach to this problem., Comment: 132 pages, 53 figures. Review article. v2: Sections 2.7 and 5.4 have been slightly extended; a few clarifying comments have been added in other sections; figure 43 has been completed; references have been added

We discuss the Operator Product Expansion (OPE) and quark-hadron duality for two-point Green functions of tetraquark currents. We emphasize that the factorizable part of the OPE series for such Green functions, including nonperturbative contributions described by QCD condensates, is saturated by the full system of ordinary hadrons and therefore cannot have any relationship to the possible tetraquark bound states. Possible tetraquark bound states may be contained in nonfactorizable parts of these Green functions. In the framework of the $1/N_c$ expansion in QCD$(N_c)$, nonfactorizable parts of the two-point Green functions of tetraquark currents provide $N_c$-suppressed contributions compared to the $N_c$-leading factorizable parts. A possible exotic tetraquark state may appear only in $N_c$-subleading contributions to the QCD Green functions, in full accord with the well-known rigorous properties of large-$N_c$ QCD., Comment: 11 pages

Recently, a QCD sum-rule analysis of tetraquark molecular states has been published, having the objective of demonstrating that our previously formulated tetraquark-adequate QCD sum rules are not correct. This comment brings to the attention of the reader inconsistencies in that article and explains some subtle details of QCD sum rules for exotic states., Comment: 3 pages, comment on Phys. Rev. D 101, 074011 (2020) [arXiv:2001.04095]

We analyze constraints on the anomalous $Wtb$ couplings from $B$-physics experiments, performing a correlated analysis and allowing all anomalous couplings to differ simultaneously from their Standard-Model (SM) values. The $B$-physics observables allow one to probe three linear combinations out of the four anomalous couplings, which parameterize the $Wtb$ vertex under the assumption that the SM symmetries remain the symmetries of the effective theory. The constraints in this work are obtained by taking into account the following $B$-physics observables: the $\bar B^0-B^0$ oscillations, the leptonic $B\to \mu^+\mu^-$ decays, the inclusive radiative $B\to X_s\gamma$ decays, and the differential branching fractions in the semileptonic inclusive $B\to X_s \mu^+ \mu^-$ and exclusive $B\to (K,K^*)\mu^+\mu^-$ decays at small $q^2$, $q$ the momentum of the $\mu^+\mu^-$ pair. We find that the SM values of the anomalous couplings belong to the 95\% CL allowed region obtained this way but lie beyond the 68\% allowed region. We also report that the distributions of the anomalous couplings obtained within our scenario differ from the results of the 1D scenario, when only one of the couplings is allowed to deviate from its SM value., Comment: 7 pages, extended version. The present analysis involves also exclusive B-decays resulting in more stringent constraints on the anomalous couplings

In perturbation theory, the spectral densities of two-point functions develop non-integrable threshold singularities at higher orders. In QCD, such singularities emerge when calculating the diagrams in terms of the pole quark mass, and they become stronger when one rearranges the perturbative expansion in terms of the running quark mass. In this paper we discuss the proper way to handle such singularities., Comment: 7 pages, Extended version, Proof by induction is given in Appendices A and B, Conclusions remain unchanged

We discuss the general properties of the $B$-meson decay form factors $F(q^2,q'^2)$, describing $B$-meson decays induced by two currents, e.g., $B$-decays into four leptons in the final state. We study the analytic properties of these complicated objects and identify those regions of $q^2$ and $q'^2$, where perturbative QCD can be applied for obtaining predictions for the physical form factors., Comment: 9 pages, version to appear in Physical Review D

We discuss dispersion representations for the triangle diagram $F(p_1^2,p_2^2,q^2)$, the single dispersion representation in $q^2$ and the double dispersion representation in $p_1^2$ and $p_2^2$, with special emphasis on the appearance of the anomalous singularities and the anomalous cuts in these representations., Comment: 13 pages, Lecture given at Helmholtz - DIAS International Summer School "Quantum Field Theory at the Limits: from Strong Fields to Heavy Quarks" 22 July - 2 August 2019, Dubna, Russia. Based on arXiv:hep-ph/0610330

Considering quantum chromodynamics in the consistent limit of simultaneous correlated increase of the number of colours, $N_{\rm c}$, beyond bounds and decrease of the strong coupling to zero allows for solid statements about qualitative features of the class of "truly exotic" tetraquark mesons carrying four mutually distinct quark flavours. Consistency criteria extracted from correlation functions for two-ordinary-meson scattering suggest the existence of more than one such tetraquarks, at least, of two tetraquarks of identical quark-flavour content and large-$N_{\rm c}$ behaviour of the total decay widths but differing in, and hence discriminable by, their predominant decay modes into two conventional mesons. This pairwise appearance is in conflict with the unique variant of such a four-quark bound state arising from the binding of diquark and antidiquark to a tetraquark by the strong interactions., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, talk presented at "Light Cone 2019 - QCD on the light cone: from hadrons to heavy ions - LC2019" (16 - 20 September 2019, Palaiseau, France)

Rare $B$-decays induced by flavour-changing neutral currents (FCNC) is one of the promising candidates for probing physics beyond the Standard model. However, for identifying potential new physics from the data, reliable control over QCD contributions is necessary. We focus on one of such QCD contributions - the charming loops - that potentially can lead to difficulties in disentangling new physics effects from the observables and discuss the possibility to gain control over theoretical predictions for charming loops., Comment: 15 pages, Plenary talk at the XXIV International Workshop "High Energy Physics and Quantum Field Theory" (QFTHEP2019) September 22-29, 2019, Sochi, Russia

Frequently, theoretical discussions of multiquark hadron states prove to be contaminated or even dominated by contributions of conventional hadrons. For the approach to QCD bound states in terms of QCD sum rules, we show how to get rid of all unwanted ordinary-hadron ballast by boiling down the traditional QCD sum-rule formalism to the nonconventional aspects in the focus of interest., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, talk presented at the "XXIV International Workshop on High Energy Physics and Quantum Field Theory" (22 - 29 September 2019, Sochi, Russia)

We consider quark-hadron duality relations and QCD sum rules for correlators involving exotic tetraquark currents, here specializing to the case of quark-exchange processes. We point out the differences they exhibit with respect to the cases involving ordinary bilinear quark currents. Based on the observation that only diagrams possessing at least four-quark singularities can contribute to the formation of tetraquark states, we show that the quark-hadron duality relations and the corresponding sum rules split into two non-overlapping relations. The ultimate tetraquark-adequate QCD sum rule is concerned only with one of these relations, in which the operator product expansion starts with diagrams of order $O(\alpha_s^2)$., Comment: 8 pages, version to appear in Phys. Rev. D

It is shown that the multiquark gauge-invariant operators can, in general, be decomposed into combinations of products of ordinary hadronic operators, exhibiting their cluster reducibility. The latter property inhibits the formation of completely compact multiquark bound states. Multiquark operators still play a crucial role in the description of exotic states in regions of configuration space where the hadronic clusters are close to each other. Our proof gives a foundation for a unified viewpoint, where the multiquark-type and the molecular-type approaches play complementary roles, at the gauge-invariant nonlocal operator level., Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures. A sentence has been changed in the abstract. A few minor changes in the main text

With the experimental observation of several credible candidates for multiquark hadrons, the latter states re-entered the focus of interest of theoretical strong-interaction physics. Proper treatment of hadronic bound states by quantum chromodynamics, QCD, the quantum field theory governing all strong interactions, necessitates a nonperturbative approach. A well-established framework of this kind is provided by QCD sum rules relating hadron features to the parameters of QCD. Conceptual reconsideration, however, reveals that, in order to really match the peculiarities of multiquarks, the long-standing conventional QCD sum-rule techniques evidently must be subjected to considerable modification. The so far overlooked necessity for such adaptations is most easily demonstrated for the case of least complexity, that is, for tetraquarks, bound states of two quarks and two antiquarks., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, contributed to the "European Physical Society Conference on High Energy Physics - EPS-HEP 2019" (10 - 17 July 2019, Ghent, Belgium)

Flavour-exotic tetraquark mesons, by definition bound states of two quarks and two antiquarks of four mutually different quark flavours, are, for given Lorentz features, subject to two incompatible constraints: On the one hand, within quantum chromodynamics a formation of compact tetraquark states is most easily envisaged by merging two colour-antisymmetric two-quark clusters, a diquark and an antidiquark. This path, however, leads to merely a single tetraquark state of chosen Lorentz characteristics. On the other hand, in the limit of the number of colour degrees of freedom growing beyond bounds, internal consistency at leading order calls for the presence of (at least) two of such tetraquark states of identical quark-flavour composition. The failure of attempts to reconcile these two contradictory insights suggests the nonexistence of compact flavour-exotic tetraquark mesons., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, talk presented at the "European Physical Society Conference on High Energy Physics - EPS-HEP 2019" (10 - 17 July 2019, Ghent, Belgium)

We study details of QCD sum rules \`a la Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov for exotic tetraquark states. We point out that duality relations for correlators involving exotic currents have fundamental differences compared with the duality relations for the correlators of bilinear quark currents: namely, the $O(1)$ and $O(\alpha_s)$ [$\alpha_s$ the strong coupling constant] terms in the operator product expansion for the exotic correlators exactly cancel against the contributions of the two-meson states on the hadron side of QCD sum rules. As a result, the tetraquark properties turn out to be related to the specific non-factorizable parts of the exotic Green functions; the relevant non-factorizable diagrams start at order $O(\alpha_s^2)$., Comment: 6 pages, version to be published in Physical Review D

We analyse exotic tetraquark mesons - bound states formed by two quarks and two antiquarks - for the specific case of four different quark flavours within the framework of a well-defined limit of quantum chromodynamics characterized by the correlated growth without bound of the number of colour degrees of freedom and approach to zero of the coupling constant of the strong interactions. On the one hand, the assumption that the tetraquarks of the kind defined above show up, as poles in the amplitudes for the scattering of two ordinary mesons with flavour quantum numbers that match those of these tetraquarks, already at lowest possible order in an expansion in inverse powers of the number of colours implies the existence of two types of flavour-exotic tetraquarks, distinguishable by their dominant transitions to two ordinary mesons. On the other hand, we are aware of merely a single, unique colour-singlet arrangement of two quarks and two antiquarks capable of tolerating a compact flavour-exotic tetraquark, a bound state of colour-antisymmetric diquark and antidiquark. In view of these two clearly contradictory observations, we are led to the plausible conclusion that, within the considered limiting case of quantum chromodynamics, a conceivable explanation of the riddle might consist in the non-existence of any flavour-exotic tetraquarks in form of narrow states., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, talk presented at "XIII Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum - Confinement2018" (31 July - 6 August 2018, Maynooth University, Ireland)

We explore, by a rather peculiar limit of QCD sum rules subject to a Borel transformation (realized by allowing the related Borel mass parameter to approach infinity), how the small difference of the masses of up and down quark translates into the leptonic decay constants of pseudoscalar or vector heavy-light mesons. For the charmed and bottom mesons, we find that the decay constants of their lowest-lying charged and neutral representatives should differ by an amount of the order of 1 MeV., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, talk presented at "XIII Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum - Confinement2018" (31 July - 6 August 2018, Maynooth University, Ireland)

A salient feature shared by all tetraquark candidates observed in experiment is the absence of flavor-exotic states of the type $\bar a b\bar c d$, with four different quark flavors. This phenomenon may be understood from the properties of large-$N_c$ QCD: On the one hand, consistency conditions for flavor-exotic Green functions, potentially containing these tetraquark poles, require the existence of two tetraquarks $T_A$ and $T_B$: each of them should decay dominantly via a single two-meson channel, $T_A\to M_{\bar a b}M_{\bar c d}$ and $T_B\to M_{\bar a d}M_{\bar c b}$, with suppressed rates $T_A\to M_{\bar a d}M_{\bar c b}$ and $T_B\to M_{\bar a b}M_{\bar c d}$. On the other hand, we have at hand only one diquark-antidiquark flavor structure $(\bar a \bar c)(b d)$ that might produce a compact tetraquark bound state. Taking into account that the diquark-antidiquark structure is the only viable candidate for a compact tetraquark state, one concludes that it is impossible to have two different narrow tetraquarks decaying dominantly into different two-meson channels. This contradiction suggests that large-$N_c$ QCD does not support the existence of narrow flavor-exotic tetraquarks. This argument does not rule out the possible existence of broad molecular-type flavor-exotic states, or of molecular-type bound states lying very close to the two-meson thresholds., Comment: 8 pages

Applying the QCD sum-rule machinery in the so-called local-duality shape to heavy-light mesons reveals that, as a consequence of the non-zero mass gap between up and down quarks, the leptonic decay constants of the neutral and charged versions of the $D,$ $D^\ast,$ $B$ and $B^\ast$ mesons differ by approximately 1 MeV., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, talk presented at "QCD@Work 2018 - International Workshop on Quantum Chromodynamics: Theory and Experiment" (25 - 28 June 2018, Matera, Italy)

Two-ordinary-meson scattering in large-$N_c$ QCD implies consistency criteria for intermediate-tetraquark contributions. Their fulfilment at $N_c$-leading order constrains the nature of the spectrum of genuinely exotic tetraquark states., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, contributed to "QCD@Work 2018 - International Workshop on Quantum Chromodynamics: Theory and Experiment" (25 - 28 June 2018, Matera, Italy)

This presentation reviews the main results of our recent work [A.K., D.M., N.N., Phys. Rev. D97, 053007 (2018)] on rare radiative leptonic decays $B_{d,s}\to\gamma\mu^+\mu^-$ and $B_{d,s}\to\gamma e^+e ^-$ induced by flavour-changing neutral currents (FCNC) in the Standard Model., Comment: 5 pages, contributed to "QCD@Work 2018 - International Workshop on Quantum Chromodynamics: Theory and Experiment" (25 - 28 June 2018, Matera, Italy)

We embark on systematic explorations of the behaviour of tetraquark mesons (colour-singlet bound states of two quarks and two antiquarks) in the (idealized) limit of a large number $N_c$ of colour degrees of freedom of quantum chromodynamics. Considering the scattering of two ordinary mesons into two ordinary mesons, we start off with formulating a set of selection criteria that should enable us to unambiguously single out precisely those contributions to all encountered scattering amplitudes that potentially will develop tetraquark poles. Assuming that tetraquark mesons do exist and, if so, emerge in the contributions compatible with our criteria at largest admissible order of $N_c$, we deduce, for the categories of tetraquarks that exhibit either four or only two different open quark flavours, that the decay rates of these tetraquark types are, at least, of order $1/N_c^2$ and that internal consistency requires all the members of the first species to exist pairwise, distinguishable by their favoured two-ordinary-meson decay channels., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, talk presented at "QUARKS-2018 - XXth International Seminar on High Energy Physics" (27 May - 2 June 2018, Valday, Russia)

We revisit the calculation of nonfactorizable corrections induced by charm-quark loops in exclusive FCNC $B$-decays. For the sake of clarity, we make use of a field theory with scalar particles: this allows us to focus on the conceptual issues and to avoid technical complications related to particle spins in QCD. We perform a straightforward calculation of the appropriate correlation function and show that it requires the knowledge of the full generic three-particle distribution amplitude with non-aligned arguments, $\langle 0|\bar s(y)G_{\mu\nu}(x)b(0)|B(p)\rangle$. Moreover, the dependence of this quantity on the variable $(x-y)^2$ is essential for a proper account of the $\left(\Lambda_{\rm QCD}m_b/m_c^2\right)^n$ terms in the amplitudes of FCNC $B$-decays., Comment: 5 pages, minor clarifications added, version to appear in PLB

We revisit rare radiative leptonic decays $B_{s,d}\to \gamma e^+e^-$ and $B_{s,d}\to \gamma \mu^+\mu^-$ in the Standard Model and provide the updated estimates for various differential distributions (the branching ratios, the forward-backward asymmetry, and $R_{\mu/e}$, the ratio of the differential distribution for muons over electrons in the final state). The new ingredients of this work compared to the existing theoretical analyses are the following: (i) we calculate all $B_d\to\gamma$ and $B_s\to\gamma$ form factors induced by the vector, axial-vector, tensor and pseudotensor quark currents within the relativistic dispersion approach based on the constituent quark picture; (ii) we perform a detailed analysis of the charm-loop contributions to radiative leptonic decays: we obtain constraints imposed by the electromagnetic gauge invariance and discuss the existing ambiguities in the charmonia contributions., Comment: 27 pages. Version to appear in Phys. Rev. D

Evaluation of Borelized QCD sum rules in the so-called local-duality limit of infinitely large Borel mass parameter provides an alternate route for extraction of the dependence of the decay constants of heavy-light mesons on the mass $m_q$ of the involved light quark $q$: For appropriate choices of the two-point correlation functions of currents interpolating the hadrons under study, the local-duality limit forces all nonperturbative contributions parametrized by vacuum condensates to such kind of correlator to vanish. As a consequence, the sought $m_q$ dependence of the heavy-light meson decay constants proves to be controlled primarily by the correlator contributions from perturbative QCD. Our knowledge of the analytic behaviour of the latter as functions of $m_q$ enables us to derive the $m_q$ dependence of the decay constants of both pseudoscalar and vector heavy-light mesons, for which we estimate strong isospin breaking to be of the order of 1 MeV for both charm and beauty sectors., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, talk presented at the "XVII International Conference on Hadron Spectroscopy and Structure - Hadron2017" (25 - 29 September 2017, Salamanca, Spain)

The properties of possibly existing tetraquarks are studied in the large-$N_{\mathrm{c}}^{}$ limit of QCD by means of four-point correlation functions of meson currents.The necessity of a detailed analysis of the singularities of Feynman diagrams, by means of the Landau equations, to recognize those diagrams that might contribute to the formation of tetraquark states, is emphasized. It is found, in general, that tetraquarks, if they exist, should have narrow widths of the order of $N_{\mathrm{c}}^{-2}$., Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures. Talk given at the 6th International Conference on New Frontiers in Physics, 17-29 August 2017, Kolymbari, Crete, Greece

Scrutinizing the scattering of ordinary mesons in the limiting case of the number of colour degrees of freedom $N_{\rm c}$ of quantum chromodynamics approaching infinity, we formulate Feynman-diagram selection criteria and from these deduce rigorous self-consistency conditions for the manifestation of a tetraquark, a two-quark-two-antiquark bound state, as a pole in the corresponding amplitudes. Our constraints bear rather far-reaching consequences: In particular, all flavour-exotic tetraquarks, composed of four (anti)quarks of disparate flavour, must come in, at least, two variants differing in (and thus readily identifiable by) the large-$N_{\rm c}$ behaviour of their couplings to two ordinary mesons. Quite generally, irrespective of their flavour composition, all tetraquarks prove to be narrow. Their decay rates behave, for large $N_{\rm c},$ like $1/N_{\rm c}^2$ and thus decrease faster than those of ordinary mesons., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, contributed to "XVII International Conference on Hadron Spectroscopy and Structure - Hadron2017" (25 - 29 September 2017, Salamanca, Spain)

Considering four-point correlation functions of color-singlet quark bilinears, we investigate, in the large-$N_{\mathrm{c}}$ limit of QCD, the subleading diagrams that involve, in the $s$-channel of meson-meson scattering amplitudes, two-quark--two-antiquark intermediate states. The latter contribute, together with gluon exchanges, to the formation, at the hadronic level, of two-meson and tetraquark intermediate states. It is shown that the two-meson contributions, which are predictable, in general, from leading-order $N_{\mathrm{c}}$-behaviors, consistently satisfy the constraints resulting from the $1/N_{\mathrm{c}}$ expansion procedure and thus provide a firm basis for the extraction of tetraquark properties from $N_{\mathrm{c}}$-subleading diagrams. We find that, in general, tetraquarks, if they exist in compact form, should have narrow decay widths, of the order of $N_{\mathrm{c}}^{-2}$. For the particular case of exotic tetraquarks, involving four different quark flavors, two different types of tetraquark are needed, each having a preferred decay channel, to satisfy the consistency constraints., Comment: 23 pages, 24 figures. A few clarifying paragraphs, two figures and one reference have been added

We formulate rigorous criteria for selecting diagrams to be taken into account in the analysis of potential polyquark (tetra or penta) poles in QCD. The central point of these criteria is the requirement that the Feynman diagrams for the relevant Green functions contain four-quark (or, respectively, five-quark in the pentaquark case) intermediate states and the corresponding cuts. It is shown that some diagrams which "visually" seem to contain the four-quark cuts, turn out to be free of these singularities and therefore should not be taken into account when calculating the tetraquark properties. We then consider large-$N_c$ QCD which in many cases provide qualitatively correct picture of hadron properties and discuss in detail the tetraquark states. For the "direct" and the "recombination" four-point Green functions, which may potentially contain the tetraquark poles, we formulate large-$N_c$ consistency conditions which strongly restrict the behaviour of the tetraquark-to-ordinary meson transition amplitudes. In the end, these conditions allow us to obtain constraints on width of the potential tetraquark states at large $N_c$. We report that both flavor-exotic and cryptoexotic (i.e., flavor-nonexotic) tetraquarks, if the corresponding poles exist, have a width of order $O(1/N_c^2)$, i.e. they should be parametrically narrower compared to the ordinary $\bar qq$ mesons with a width of order $O(1/N_c)$. Moreover, for flavor-exotic states, the large-$N_c$ consistency conditions require two narrow flavor-exotic states, each of these states coupling dominantly to one specific meson-meson channel., Comment: Plenary talk given at the XXIII International Workshop "High Energy Physics and Quantum Field Theory" (QFTHEP 2017), June 26-July 3, 2017, Yaroslavl, Russia

We present our recent results for long-distance QCD effects in the FCNC radiative leptonic decays $B\to\gamma\ell^+\ell^-$, $\ell=\{e,\mu\}$. One encounters here two distinct types of long-distance effects: those encoded in the $B\to\gamma$ transition form factors induced by the $b\to q$ quark currents, and those related to the charm-loop effects. We calculate the $B\to\gamma$ form factors in a broad range of the momentum transfers making use of the relativisitc dispersion approach based on the constituent quark picture which has proven to provide reliable predictions for many weak-transition form factors. Concerning the description of the charm-loop contributions, we point out two observations: First, the precise description of the charmonium resonances, in particular, the relative phases between $\psi$ and $\psi'$, has impact on the differential distributions and on the forward-backward asymmetry, $A_{\rm FB}$, in a broad range of $q^2\ge 5$ GeV$^2$. Second, the shape of $A_{\rm FB}$ in $B\to\gamma\ell^+\ell^-$ and in $B\to V\ell^+\ell^-$ ($V$ the vector meson) {\it in the $q^2$-region between $\psi$ and $\psi'$} provides an unambiguous probe of the relative phases between $\psi$ and $\psi'$. Fixing the latter will lead to a strong reduction of the theoretical uncertainties in $A_{\rm FB}$ at $q^2=5-9$ GeV$^2$ where it has the sensitivity to physics beyond the SM., Comment: 6 pages, talk given at "The European Physical Society Conference on High Energy Physics - EPS-HEP 2017" (5 - 12 July 2017, Venice, Italy)

QCD sum rules are analytic predictions of hadron observables from quantum chromodynamics. In the so-called local-duality limit of their Borel-transformed form, all nonperturbative contributions are encompassed by just a single quantity, an effective threshold beyond which, by assumption, all hadronic contributions are reliably described by perturbative QCD. Reconstructing its quark-mass dependence enables us to investigate the differences of the leptonic decay constants of heavy-light mesons effectuated by the tiny isospin-violating discrepancy of the masses of up and down quarks. By and large, our findings enjoy excellent agreement with the outcomes of earlier studies, the only exception being a lattice-QCD prediction for the $B$ mesons, where we find dramatic disagreement., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, contributed to "The European Physical Society Conference on High Energy Physics - EPS-HEP 2017" (5 - 12 July 2017, Venice, Italy)

The analysis of two-ordinary-meson scattering amplitudes in the limit of a large number $N_{\rm c}$ of the colour degrees of freedom of quantum chromodynamics, with suitably decreasing strong coupling and all quarks transforming according to the gauge group's fundamental representation, enables us to establish a set of rigorous consistency conditions for the emergence of a tetraquark (i.e., a bound state of two quarks and two antiquarks) as a pole in these amplitudes. For genuinely flavour-exotic tetraquarks, these constraints require the existence of two tetraquark states distinguishable by their preferred couplings to two ordinary mesons, whereas, for cryptoexotic tetraquarks, our constraints may be satisfied by a single tetraquark state, which then, however, may mix with ordinary mesons. For elucidation of the tetraquark features, the consideration of the subleading contributions proves to be mandatory: for both variants of tetraquarks, their decay widths fall off like $1/N_{\rm c}^2$ for large $N_{\rm c}.$, Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, talk presented at "The European Physical Society Conference on High Energy Physics - EPS-HEP 2017" (5 - 12 July 2017, Venice, Italy)

Discussing four-point Green functions of bilinear quark currents in large-$N_c$ QCD, we formulate rigorous criteria for selecting diagrams appropriate for the analysis of potential tetraquark poles. We find that both flavor-exotic and cryptoexotic (i.e., flavor-nonexotic) tetraquarks, if such poles exist, have a width of order $O(1/N_c^2)$, so they are parametrically narrower compared to the ordinary $\bar qq$ mesons, which have a width of order $O(1/N_c)$. Moreover, for flavor-exotic states, the consistency of the large-$N_c$ behavior of "direct" and "recombination" Green functions requires two narrow flavor-exotic states, each coupling dominantly to one specific meson-meson channel., Comment: 5 pages, version to appear in PRD, minor text modifications, conclusions remain unchanged

We discuss the leptonic decay constants of heavy--light mesons by means of Borel QCD sum~rules in the local-duality (LD) limit of infinitely large Borel mass parameter. In this limit, for an appropriate choice of the invariant structures in the QCD correlation functions, all vacuum-condensate contributions vanish and all nonperturbative effects are contained in only one quantity, the effective threshold. We study properties of the LD effective thresholds in the limits of large heavy-quark mass $m_Q$ and small light-quark mass $m_q$. In the heavy-quark limit, we clarify the role played by the radiative corrections in the effective threshold for reproducing the pQCD expansion of the decay constants of pseudoscalar and vector mesons. We show that the dependence of the meson decay constants on $m_q$ arises predominantly (at the level of 70--80%) from the calculable $m_q$-dependence of the perturbative spectral densities. Making use of the lattice QCD results for the decay constants of nonstrange and strange pseudoscalar and vector heavy mesons, we obtain solid predictions for the decay constants of heavy--light mesons as functions of $m_q$ in the range from a few to 100 MeV and evaluate the corresponding strong isospin-breaking effects: $f_{D^+} - f_{D^0}=(0.96 \pm 0.09) ~ {\rm MeV}$, $f_{D^{*+}} - f_{D^{*0}}= (1.18 \pm 0.35) ~ {\rm MeV}$, $f_{B^0} - f_{B^+}=(1.01 \pm 0.10) ~ {\rm MeV}$, $f_{B^{*0}} - f_{B^{*+}}=(0.89 \pm 0.30) ~ {\rm MeV}$., Comment: 14 pages. Typo corrected: the term describing power corrections in Eq.(1.1), which was lost when updating v2 -> v3, is restored. Notice that this term is also lost in the EPJC version (to be corrected via Erratum)

Revisiting the QCD sum-rule description of exotic hadron states, we argue that, in order to arrive at trustable analyses of, for instance, strong decay widths of multiquarks, it is inevitable to adopt the QCD sum-rule approach beyond the leading perturbative level., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, talk presented at "Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum XII" (28 August - 3 September 2016, Thessaloniki, Greece)

Compared with lattice QCD, isospin breaking of heavy-meson decay constants from QCD sum rules agrees for $D$ mesons but disagrees (by a factor of four) for $B$ mesons., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, talk presented at "Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum XII" (28 August - 3 September 2016, Thessaloniki, Greece)

We obtain predictions for $B_{(s)}\to e^+e^-\gamma$ and $B_{(s)}\to \mu^+\mu^-\gamma$ decays. All the contributions containing long-distance QCD effects are calculated in the framework of relativistic quark model. The contributions of the light vector-meson resonances related to the virtual photon emission from valence quarks of the $B$-meson are included. The highest branching ratios for the radiative leptonic B-decays are ${\cal B}(\bar B^0_s\to e^+e^-\gamma)=18.8\times10^{-9}$ and ${\cal B}(B^0_s\to \mu^+\mu^-\gamma)=12.2\times10^{-9}$. We also give the distribution of the foward-backward asymmetry., Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures, talk given at the 19th International Seminar on High Energy Physics QUARKS-2016, Pushkin, Russia, 29 May - 4 June, 2016