An approximation to a heavy-hadron decay in which one heavy quark undergoes a weak decay and the other constituents are treated as spectators. The inclusive leading width is approximated by a free-quark width, summed over allowed final states. confinement, final-state masses, strong-interaction corrections and interactions with spectator constituents limit quantitative lifetime predictions.
In a massless Fermi interaction approximation, a charged-current decay channel contributes a common mass-to-the-fifth width multiplied by its mixing and final-state multiplicity factors. A final quark-antiquark pair has three color choices, while a lepton pair has one. An initial quark does not acquire a factor of three in its lifetime merely from its possible initial colors.
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