$$\Lambda _b\rightarrow p$$ Λ b → p transition form factors in perturbative QCD

Abstract We reanalyze the $$\Lambda _b\rightarrow p$$ Λ b → p transition form factors in the perturbative QCD (PQCD) approach by including higher-twist light-cone distribution amplitudes (LCDAs) of a $$\Lambda _b$$ Λ b baryon and a proton. The previous PQCD evaluation performed decades ago with only the leading-twist $$\Lambda _b$$ Λ b baryon and proton LCDAs gave the form factors, which are two orders of magnitude smaller than indicated by experimental data. We find that the twist-4 $$\Lambda _b$$ Λ b baryon LCDAs and the twist-4 and -5 proton LCDAs contribute dominantly, and the enhanced form factors become consistent with those from lattice QCD and other nonperturbative methods. The estimated branching ratios of the semileptonic decays $$\Lambda _b\rightarrow p\ell {\bar{\nu }}_\ell $$ Λ b → p ℓ ν ¯ ℓ and the hadronic decay $$\Lambda _b\rightarrow p\pi $$ Λ b → p π are also close to the data. It implies that the b quark mass is not really heavy enough, and higher-power contributions play a crucial role, similar to the observation made in analyses of B meson transition form factors. With the formalism established in this work, we are ready to study various exclusive heavy baryon decays systematically in the PQCD approach.