Lattice measurement of the Isgur–Wise functions τ1/2 and τ3/2

Abstract We propose a method to compute the Isgur–Wise form factors τ 1 / 2 ( 1 ) and τ 3 / 2 ( 1 ) for the decay of B mesons into orbitally excited ( P wave) D * * charmed mesons on the lattice in the static limit. We also present the result of a quenched exploratory numerical simulation which shows that the signal/noise ratio allows for a more dedicated computation.