P-wave charmonium production in B-meson decays

We calculate the decay rates of B mesons into P-wave charmonium states using new factorization formulas that are valid to leading order in the relative velocity of the charmed quark and antiquark and to all orders in the running coupling constant of QCD. We express the production rates for all four P states in terms of two nonperturbative parameters: the derivative of the wave function at the origin and another parameter related to the probability for a charmed-quark-antiquark pair in a color-octet S-wave state to radiate a soft gluon and form a P-wave bound state. Using existing data on B meson decays into χ_c1 to estimate the color-octet parameter, we find that the color-octet mechanism may account for a significant fraction of the χ_c1 production rate and that B mesons should decay into χ_c2 at a similar rate.