The surprising nonleptonic decays

Recent experiments onD-meson decays necessitate a revision of the standard theoretical model for weak decays. In this paper we argue that the presence of gluons in hadrons as required by local color gauge-invariance of Quantum Chromodynamics vitiates, in particular, two assumptions previously made:

1. color suppression factors in amplitudes for weak decays like \(D^0 \to \bar K^0 \pi ^0 \) ,
2. helicity suppression of two-quark interactions in weak decays.

A formula for estimating inclusive rates of mesons decaying via two-quark interactions is derived. Estimates for decay rates and branching ratios of several interesting decays of charmed hadrons are given. In particular, we obtain lifetime estimates forD ⁰,D ⁺, andF ⁺, and we predict the branching ratio for Cabibbo-suppressed decays ofD ⁺ to be of order 0.3 rather than of order tan²Θ _c as expected within the conventional model for weak decays.B-meson decays, which would provide an additional test of our scheme, are briefly discussed. Furthermore we point out that our approach sheds new light on the old problem of strongly enhanced |ΔI|=1/2 amplitudes in nonleptonic decays of strange particles.