B-c meson weak decays and CP violation

The form factors for B-c transitions are calculated with a relativistic constituent quark model based on the Bethe-Salpeter formalism. The rates for some semileptonic and nonleptonic B, weak decays and CP-violating asymmetries for two-body hardonic B, decays are estimated as well. The calculated widths are compared with those predicted in other quark models of mesons. For the most promising signatures for the discovery of B,: B-c --> psi l nu --> (l'(+) l'(-))l nu and B-c --> psi pi --> (l'(+) l'(-))pi (with l' = e or mu), the combined branching ratios are, respectively, estimated to be 1.06 x 10(-3) and 4.8a(1)(2) x 10(-5) for tau(Bc) = 0.5 ps and as large as 2.56 x 10(-3) and 1.15a(1)(2) x 10(-4) for tau(Bc) = 1.2 ps. There are large CP-violating effects in some B-c decay modes, and the rates for some of these (e.g., B-c --> psi D*, eta(c)D, and eta(c)D*, etc.) are large too.