A formalism for the relativistic description of hadron decays within the constituent quark model is presented. First, hadron amplitudes of the light-cone constituent quark model, in particular, the weak transition form factors at spacelike momentum transfers, are represented in the form of dispersion integrals over the hadron mass. Second, the form factors at timelike momentum transfers are obtained by performing the analytic continuation from the region ${\mathit{q}}^2$≤0. As a result, the transition form factors both in the scattering and the decay regions are expressed through light-cone wave functions of the initial and final hadrons. The technique is applied to the description of the semileptonic decays of pseudoscalar mesons and direct calculation of the transition form factors at ${\mathit{q}}^2$≳0. Meson properties in the heavy quark limit are investigated. © 1996 The American Physical Society.

• Received 11 September 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.53.2460