EFFECTIVE-FIELD THEORY OF HEAVY MESONS - ART. NO. 074003

In this paper we present a detailed formulation for a recently propose d effective field theory to describe the nonperturbative QCD dynamics of heavy mesons. This effective theory incorporates heavy quark symmet ry (HQS) and heavy quark effective theory (HQET). Heavy mesons in this theory are constructed as composite particles of a heavy quark bounde d with light degrees of freedom. The heavy meson properties in the hea vy quark limit and the 1/m(Q) corrections can then be explicitly evalu ated from this effective theory. All the basic parameters of HQET, nam ely, the heavy quark mass mp, the heavy meson residual mass <(Lambda)o ver bar>, and the HQS breaking mass parameters lambda(1) and lambda(2) , are consistently determined. lambda(1) is found to be small due to a large cancellation between the heavy quark kinetic energy and the chr ome-electric interaction between the heavy quark and light degrees of freedom. We also evaluate the Isgur-Wise function, the decay constant, and the axial-vector coupling constant of heavy mesons. [S0556-2821(9 8)04017-X]