Factorization and hadronic B decays in the heavy quark limit

Recent theoretical investigations [M. Beneke et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 1914 (1999)] of two-body hadronic B decays have provided justification, at least to order αs, for the use of the factorization ansatz to evaluate the B decay matrix elements provided the decay meson containing the spectator quark is not heavy. Motivated by this, we present simplified formulae for a wide range of B decays into the lowest mass pseudoscalar and vector mesons. These formulae, valid in the heavy quark limit, involve a reduced set of soft QCD parameters and, although resulting in some loss of accuracy, should still provide an adequate and transparent tool with which to confront data for some time to come. 12.15.Ji, 12.60.Jv, 13.25.Hw Typeset using REVTEX ∗Present address: Department of Physics, University of Semnan, Iran