We used variationally improved perturbation theory (VIPT) in calculating the slope and curvature of Isgur–Wise (I–W) function with the Cornell potential $− \dfrac{4\alpha_{s}}{3r} br + c$ instead of the usual stationary state perturbation theory as done earlier. We used $−(4\alpha_{s} /3r)$, i.e. the Coulombic potential, as the parent and the linear one, i.e. $br +c$ as the perturbed potential in the theory and calculated the slope and curvature of Isgur–Wise function including three states in the summation involved in the first-order correction to wave function in the method.

We have recently reported the calculation of slope and curvature of Isgur–Wise function based on variationally improved perturbation theory (VIPT) in a quantum chromodynamics (QCD)-inspired potential model. In that work, Coulombic potential was taken as the parent while the linear one as the perturbation. In this work, we choose the linear one as the parent with Coulombic one as the perturbation and see the consequences.

We use variationally improved perturbation theory (VIPT) for calculating the elastic form factors and charge radii of $D$, $D_{s}$, $B$, $B_{s}$ and $B_{c}$ mesons in a quantum chromodynamics (QCD)-inspired potential model. For that, we use linear-cum-Coulombic potential and opt the Coulombic part first as parent and then the linear part as parent. The results show that charge radii and form factors are quite small for the Coulombic parent compared to the linear parent. Also, the analysis leads to a lower as well as upper bounds on the four-momentum transfer $Q^{2}$, hinting at a workable range of $Q^{2}$ within this approach, which may be useful in future experimental analyses. Comparison of both the options shows that the linear parent is the better option.

We use Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin (WKB) approximation for calculating the slope and curvature of Isgur–Wise function in a QCD-inspired potential model. This work is an extension of the approximation methods to the QCD-inspired potential model. The approach hints at an effective range of distance for calculating the slope and curvature of Isgur–Wise function. Comparison is also made with those of Dalgarno method and variationallyimproved perturbation theory (VIPT) as well as other models to show the advantages of using WKB approximation.