EXCLUSIVE SEMILEPTONIC DECAYS OF B-MESONS TO ORBITALLY EXCITED D-MESONS IN THE RELATIVISTIC QUARK-MODEL

Exclusive semileptonic B meson decays to orbitally excited D mesons ar e investigated in the infinitely heavy quark Limit in the framework of the relativistic quark model based on the quasipotential approach. Th e B-->D*e nu Isgur-Wise functions tau(3/2)(w) and tau(1/2)(w) are det ermined. It is found that the relativistic transformation of the meson wave functions (Wigner rotation of the Light quark spin) contribute a lready at the leading order of the heavy quark expansion. (C) 1998 Els evier Science B.V. All rights reserved.