by Aneesh V Manohar and Mark B Wise, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521642418 (hbk) £40/$64.95.
Most of the achievements in the understanding of the physics of particles containing heavy quarks date from the past decade, both on the experimental and on the theoretical side. More and more precise measurements of b hadron properties carried out at CESR, LEP and the Tevatron colliders have gone in parallel with the development of the Heavy Quark Effective Theory (HQET), which has become the key tool for a quantitative description of the interactions of heavy particles. Such important theoretical developments were up to now documented in a fairly large number of papers, published over the years by the pioneers of the field. Manohar and Wise now provide us with a valuable textbook on heavy quark physics. The presentation of the material is clear and concise, covering the majority of the fundamental theoretical results currently available in the field.
The book starts with a review of the Standard Model. A discussion of spin-flavour symmetry follows, including the implications for the heavy hadron spectroscopy and for the hadron production rates in the heavy quark hadronization. Then HQET is developed, first at one loop in the infinite mass limit, then including radiative corrections and 1/mQ corrections. Many important results are derived, such as the heavy meson decay constants, the form factors in the semileptonic decay of B mesons to D and D* mesons, and the semileptonic decays of Lb to Lc baryons (heavy-to-heavy currents) and Lc to L (heavy-to-light).
Chiral perturbation theory is also discussed, deriving the matrix elements for the semileptonic decay of heavy-to-light mesons, as well as corrections to heavy-to-heavy transitions (BÆ D(*)en). The powerful operator product expansion formalism is finally developed and used to calculate inclusive weak decays of b hadrons.
Some of the calculations are reported step by step, especially when they involve techniques and subtleties developed for the purpose that have become key tools in HQET. Each chapter is complemented with problems that are non-trivial applications of the theory discussed, and a collection of bibliographical references.
The book is aimed at readers with a solid background in quantum field theory who are aiming to get acquainted with the techniques of HQET. The illuminating discussions of the approximations and assumptions made at each step, and of their implications on the validity of the results derived, make it valuable reading for all physicists who want to get a better insight into heavy quark physics, even without going through all of the calculations.
Heavy quark physics is now entering an exciting new era in which high-luminosity machines will significantly improve our experimental knowledge, demanding corresponding progress in the precision of theoretical predictions. This text provides a concise and systematic summary of today’s knowledge, and will stay as a bibliographical milestone while new developments take place.
