ISGUR-WISE SYMMETRY IN 2 DIMENSIONS

The approach to the heavy-quark Isgur-Wise limit is examined in (1 + 1)-dimensional QCD where exact calculations are possible. To facilitate the discussion, an explicit scaling equation for the mesonic Bethe-Salpeter amplitude is derived. We find that the leading finite heavy-quark mass corrections to the decay constant and the elastic form factor are comparable in strength. Nonrelativistic estimates of both of the quantities work reasonably well and generalize to 3 + 1 dimensions. We find that the corrections to the (3 + 1)-dimensional form factor at large epsilon . epsilon' are comparable to those estimated for the decay constant by lattice gauge theory and QCD sum rules. Furthermore, the structure function f-(epsilon - epsilon') is found to be quite large at epsilon - epsilon' = 1 and we argue that this will remain true in 3 + 1 dimensions. This implies that one must exercise caution when attempting to extract Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements from semileptonic decays. Finally, it is shown that the Isgur-Wise symmetry never breaks down in two-dimensional QCD for heavy-quark to heavy-quark transitions.