Exclusive radiative b-decays in the light-cone QCD sum rule approach

We carry out a detailed study of exclusive radiative rare $B$-decays in the framework of the QCD sum rules on the light cone, which combines the traditional QCD sum rule technique with the description of final state vector mesons in terms of the light-cone wave functions of increasing twist. The decays considered are: $B_{u,d} \to K^* +\gamma, B_{u,d}\to \rho+\gamma, B_d\to \omega+\gamma$ and the corresponding decays of the $B_s$ mesons, $B_s\to \phi+\gamma$ and $B_s\to K^*+\gamma$. Based on our estimate of the transition form factor $F_1^{B \to K^*\pg}(0) =0.32\pm0.05$, we find for the branching ratio $BR(B \to K^* + \gamma) = (4.8\pm 1.5)\times 10^{-5}$, which is in agreement with the observed value measured by the CLEO collaboration. We present detailed estimates for the ratios of the radiative decay form factors, which are then used to predict the rates for the exclusive radiative B-decays listed above. This in principle allows the extraction of the CKM matrix element $|V_{td}|$ from the penguin-dominated CKM-suppressed radiative decays when they are measured. We give a detailed discussion of the dependence of the form factors on the $b$-quark mass and on the momentum transfer, as well as their interrelation with the CKM-suppressed semileptonic decay form factors in $B\to \rho+\ell+\nu$ which we also calculate in our approach.