Decay constants, semileptonic and non-leptonic B decays in a Bethe-Salpeter model

We evaluate the decay constants for the B and D mesons and the form factors for the semileptonic decays of the B meson to D and D* mesons in a Bethe-Salpeter model. From data we extract V-cb = 0.039 +/- 0.002 from (B) over bar --> D*l (nu) over bar and V-cb = 0.037 +/- 0.004 from (B) over bar --> Dl (nu) over bar decays. The form factors are then used to obtain non-leptonic decay partial widths for B --> D pi(K) and B --> DD(D-s) in the factorization approximation. [S0556-2821(98)05313-2].