Form Factors of Meson Decays in the Relativistic Constituent Quark Model

Abstract

A formalism for the relativistic description of hadron decays within the constituent quark model is presented. First, hadron amplitudes of the light--cone constituent quark model, in particular the weak transition form factors at spacelike momentum transfers, $q^2\le 0$, are represented in the form of the dispersion integrals over the hadron mass. Second, the form factors at $q^2>0$ are obtained by performing the analytic continuation from the region $q^2<0$. As a result, the transition form factors both in the scattering and the decay regions are expressed through the light--cone wave functions of the initial and final hadrons. The technique is applied to the description of the semileptonic decays of pseudoscalar mesons and direct calculation of the transition form factors at $q^2>0$. Meson properties in the heavy quark limit are investigated.