Since fields in the heavy quark effective theory are described by both a velocity and a residual momentum, there is redundancy in the theory: small shifts in velocity may be absorbed into a redefinition of the residual momentum. We demonstrate that this trivial reparameterisation invariance has non-trivial consequences: it relates coefficients of terms of different orders in the $1/m$ expansion and requires linear combinations of these operators to be multiplicatively renormalised. For example, the operator $-D^2/2m$ in the effective lagrangian has zero anomalous dimension, coefficient one, and does not receive any non-perturbative contributions from matching conditions. We also demonstrate that this invariance severely restricts the forms of operators which may appear in chiral lagrangians for heavy particles.
Categories: hep-ph