Meson lattice [MeV] our value [MeV] s
eff
0
[GeV
2
] M
2
[GeV
2
]
f
B
c
427±8 [36], 434±5 [37] 425±25 53–55 30–50
f
D
0
213±2 [38], 207±4 [39] 212±16 7–7.5 4–6
f
D
∗
278±23 [40], 224±9 [41] 258±40 6–8 6–8
Table 1. Decay constants of mesons with 3ptSR parameters.
To calculate the form factors in QCD sum rules, in which the correlation function is
written as a sum of perturbative and non-perturbative contributions as in eq. (2.11), the
perturbative part is calculated by the usual expansion in the coupling constant, while the
non-perturbative part is described by the manner of Wilson’s operator product expansion
as a sum of expectation values of operators of increasing dimension. Since it is known that
when using the Borel-transformed sum rules in calculating heavy meson decay constants
higher orders of perturbation series can contribute as much as 30–40%, depending on the
scheme (heavy-light decay constants are known to NNLO [35]), whereas the QCD 3-point
function is only known to LO, here we parametrize the 3-point function with the same
threshold parameters s
eff
0
that, at LO in QCDSR reproduce the meson decay constants
obtained from the lattice QCD calculations, listed in table 1, whereas the 3ptSR Borel
mass parameters M
2
are taken in the region where the stability is achieved in the sense of
appearance of the so called Borel plateau. An approximate relation connecting the Borel
mass parameters of different meson decay constants noticed by authors in [42]
M
2
1
M
2
2
≈
m
2
M
1
− m
2
Q
1
m
2
M
2
− m
2
Q
2
(2.18)
where m
M
i
is mass of the meson, and m
Q
i
is the mass of its heavier quark, is found to
hold here too, and, as will be shown later, in 3-point calculations as well. Note however,
that the uncertainties of decay constants arising in our calculation are connected with our
specific method of calculation, since the threshold parameters are actually fixed so that
they reproduce the lattice values, along with their uncertainties. Venturing into the 3-point
calculation, as mentioned above, we use the same Borel thresholds paired with the decay
constants that are reproduced by them. It is important to notice that, when estimating
uncertainties in the parameters of the 3ptSR calculation we do not vary the decay constants
and thresholds independently, but rather we always use decay constants values together
with the corresponding thresholds fixed by the decay constants calculation. The hope is
that all the higher order/higher dimension operator contributions are reproduced through
the threshold modification in the 3-point calculation as well. Otherwise, for the b quark
we use the so called “potential subtracted” mass [43], which is coincidentally very close to
both the Υ(1S) scheme mass [44] and the kinetic scheme mass [45, 46], whereas the c-quark
the mass is then given by varying the ratio Z of the two masses given by the QCD lattice
calculation [47, 48], keeping in mind that we do not use the MS masses, and this ratio for
pole masses tends to be lower as higher order corrections are included — which is why we
choose to use a somewhat lower value of Z. The same method described above was already
– 8 –