- Accepted Paper
Next-to-leading-order QCD corrections to the radiative decays
Phys. Rev. D - Accepted 20 October, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/ys59-qb6s
Phys. Rev. D - Accepted 20 October, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/ys59-qb6s
Within the framework of nonrelativistic QCD (NRQCD) factorization, we calculate the next-to-leading-order (NLO) QCD corrections to with . We determine all six independent helicity amplitudes, including the one-loop corrections to the QED amplitude and the two-loop corrections to the QCD amplitude, and retain the interference between the QED and QCD amplitudes in the decay widths. The NLO corrections substantially enhance the and decay widths, while reducing the decay width by approximately . Including the QED amplitude leads to sizable destructive interference for and an enhancement for , but has only a small effect on the decay width. Two treatments of photon fragmentation, based on the NRQCD matrix element and the experimentally determined decay constant, yield NLO unpolarized decay widths that agree at the few percent level or better. Using the decay constant scheme at , we obtain NLO central branching fractions of , , and for the three channels, respectively. The NLO corrections reduce the renormalization scale dependence, particularly for , although a sizable dependence remains for . At fixed , the branching fractions decrease with increasing , more strongly for and than for . For collisions at $\sqrt{s}=14\,{\rm TeV}$ and an integrated luminosity of $100\,{\rm fb}^{-1}$, we estimate approximately and events from and decays, respectively. Measurements with the existing Belle sample remain challenging because of the small expected yields. A substantially larger sample at Belle II would improve the prospects for observing these radiative decays.
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