Semileptonic sum rules in heavy-to-light charm decays

Abstract

We investigate semileptonic sum rules in heavy-to-light charm decays, motivated by analogous relations in $b \to c$ and $b \to u$ transitions. Focusing on the $c \to d\overline{\ell}\nu$ decays, $D \to \pi\overline{\ell}\nu$, $D \to \rho\overline{\ell}\nu$, and $\Lambda_c \to n\overline{\ell}\nu$, we examine a relation among their lepton-flavor universality ratios $R_H^{\mu e}$. Although the charm sum rule is less precise than the relations in bottom-hadron decays, current low-energy and high-$p_T$ constraints on new physics restrict the actual deviation from the relation to below the percent level. The relation can therefore provide a useful consistency check of charm semileptonic measurements. As an application, we derive a prediction for the yet-unmeasured ratio $R_n^{\mu e}$ in $\Lambda_c \to n\overline{\ell}\nu$.