An analysis of the time-dependent CP asymmetryin $B \to \pi \pi$ decays in the standard model

Measurements of the time-dependent CP-asymmetry in the decay and its charge conjugate by the BELLE and BABAR collaborations currently yield and , characterizing the direct and mixing-induced CP-asymmetries, respectively. We study the implication of these measurements on the CKM phenomenology taking into account the available information in the quark mixing sector. Our analysis leads to the results that the ratio |P _c /T _c | involving the QCD-penguin and tree amplitudes and the related strong phase difference in the decays are quite substantial. Using the isospin symmetry to constrain |P _c /T _c | and , where parameterizes the penguin-induced contribution, we present a fit of the current data including the measurements of and . Our best-fits yield , , , , and . At 68% C.L., the ranges are , , , and . Currently en vogue dynamical approaches to estimate the hadronic matrix elements in decays do not provide a good fit of the current data.Received: 5 April 2004, Published online: 14 July 2004A.Ya. Parkhomenko: On leave of absence from Department of Theoretical Physics, Yaroslavl State University, Sovietskaya 14, 150000 Yaroslavl, Russia.     

CP violation in $B \to \phi K$ decay with anomalous right-handed top quark couplings

We explore CP violation in decay processes in the presence of the anomalous right-handed and couplings. The complex anomalous top coupling can be a source of new CP violation and may lead to a deviation of the observed weak phase in decays, which accounts for the present disagreement of the observed between and decays. Direct CP violation is also predicted. Received: 27 November 2002, Revised: 28 March 2003, Published online: 2 June 2003     

QCD anatomy of B\to X_s\gamma decays

We present an updated next-to-leading order analysis of the branching ratio and photon spectrum, including consistently the effects of Fermi motion in the heavy-quark expansion. For the Standard Model, we obtain for the integral over the high-energy part of the photon spectrum with GeV, where the first error reflects the uncertainty in the input parameters, and the second one the uncertainty in the calculation of Fermi motion. This prediction agrees with the CLEO measurement of the same quantity within one standard deviation. From a reanalysis of the CLEO data, we obtain for the total branching ratio using the measured rate above 2.2 GeV, and using a fit to the photon energy spectrum. Both values are consistent with the Standard Model prediction of . Our analysis contains an improved discussion of renormalization-scale dependence and QED corrections. We also study the sensitivity of the branching ratio and photon spectrum to hadronic parameters such as the b-quark mass, and to possible contributions from New Physics beyond the Standard Model. Received: 13 May 1998 / Published online: 3 September 1998     

Exclusive $B \to (K^*, \rho) \gamma$ decays in general two-Higgs-doublet models

By employing the QCD factorization approach, we calculated the next-to-leading order new physics contributions to the branching ratios, CP asymmetries, isospin and U-spin symmetry breaking of the exclusive decays ( ), induced by the charged Higgs penguins in general two-Higgs-doublet models. Within the considered parameter space, we found that (a) the new physics corrections to the observables are generally small in model I and model III-A, moderate in model II, but large in model III-B; (b) from the well measured branching ratios and upper limits, a lower bound of M_H > 200 GeV in model II was obtained, while the allowed range of M_H in model III-B is GeV; these bounds are comparable with those from the inclusive decay; (c) the NLO Wilson coefficient C₇(m_b) in model III-B is positive and disfavored by the measured value of isospin symmetry breaking , but it still cannot be excluded if we take the large errors into account; (d) the CP asymmetry in model III-B has an opposite sign to the one in the standard model (SM), which may be used as a good observable to distinguish the SM from model III-B; (e) the isospin symmetry breaking is less than in the region of preferred by the global fit result, but it can be as large as 20 to in the regions of and . The SM and model III-B predictions for are opposite in sign for small or large values of the CKM angles; (f) the U-spin symmetry breaking in the SM and the general two-Higgs-doublet models is generally small in size: .Received: 9 October 2003, Revised: 11 November 2003, Published online: 18 February 2004     

Spectra and decays of $\pi \pi$ and $\pi K$ atoms

We describe the spectra and decays of and atoms within a non-relativistic effective field theory. The evaluations of the energy shifts and widths are performed at next-to-leading order in isospin symmetry breaking. We provide general formulae for all S-states, and discuss the states with angular momentum one in some detail. The prediction for the lifetime of the atom in its ground state yields s.Received: 9 May 2004, Published online: 23 July 2004     

B\to \pi \rho, \pi \omega decays in perturbative QCD approach

We calculate the branching ratios and CP-asymmetries for , and decays, in the perturbative QCD approach. In this approach, we calculate non-factorizable and annihilation type contributions, in addition to the usual factorizable contributions. Our result is in agreement with the branching ratio of , measured by the CLEO and BABAR collaborations. We also predict large CP-asymmetries in these decays. These channels are useful to determine the CKM angle . Received: 5 November 2001 / Published online: 8 February 2002     

The $ B\to\pi K$ puzzle and its relation to rare B and K decays

The standard-model interpretation of the ratios of charged and neutral rates, R _c and R _n, respectively, points towards a puzzling picture. Since these observables are affected significantly by colour-allowed electroweak (EW) penguins, this puzzle could be a manifestation of new physics in the EW penguin sector. Performing the analysis in the R _n- R _c plane, which is very suitable for monitoring various effects, we demonstrate that we may, in fact, move straightforwardly to the experimental region in this plane through an enhancement of the relevant EW penguin parameter q. We derive analytical bounds for q in terms of a quantity L, which measures the violation of the Lipkin sum rule, and point out that strong phases around are favoured by the data, in contrast to QCD factorisation. The modes imply a correlation between q and the angle that, in the limit of negligible rescattering effects and colour-suppressed EW penguins, depends only on the value of L. Concentrating on a minimal flavour-violating new-physics scenario with enhanced Z ⁰ penguins, we find that the current experimental values on require roughly . As the data give , L has either to move to smaller values once the data improve or new sources of flavour and CP violation are needed. In turn, the enhanced values of L seen in the data could be accompanied by enhanced branching ratios for the rare decays , , and . Most interesting turns out to be the correlation between the modes and , with the latter depending approximately on a single scaling variable .Received: 8 September 2003, Published online: 12 November 2003     

Reweighting of the form factors in exclusive $B \rightarrow X \ell \nu_{\ell}$ decays

A form factor reweighting technique has been elaborated to permit relatively easy comparisons between different form factor models applied to exclusive decays. The software tool developed for this purpose is described. It can be used with any event generator, three of which were used in this work: ISGW2, PHSP and FLATQ2, a new powerful generator. The software tool allows for an easy and reliable implementation of any form factor model. The tool has been fully validated with the ISGW2 form factor hypothesis. The results of our present studies indicate that the combined use of the FLATQ2 generator and the form factor reweighting tool should play a very important role in future exclusive |V _ub | measurements, with largely reduced errors.Received: 28 May 2004, Revised: 23 July 2004, Published online: 3 November 2004     

Isospin breaking in $K \to 3 \pi$ decays III : Bremsstrahlung and fit to experiment

We complete here our work on isospin violation in the system. We first calculate to the same order as we did in papers I and II of this series. This adds the effects of order G ₂₇ p ² (m _u -m _d ) and G ₂₇ p ² e ² to earlier work. We calculate also the lowest order bremsstrahlung contributions, . With these and our earlier results we perform a full fit to all available CP-conserving data in the system including isospin violation effects. We perform these fits under various input assumptions as well as test the factorization and the vector dominance model for the weak NLO low energy constants.Received: 18 January 2005, Published online: 3 March 2005PACS: 13.20.Eb, 12.39.Fe, 14.40.Aq, 11.30.Rd     

Exclusive semileptonic rare decays $B \to K^{(*)} l^ + l^-$ in a SUSY SO(10) GUT

In the SUSY SO(10) GUT context, we study the exclusive processes . Using the Wilson coefficients of the relevant operators including the new operators which are induced by neutral Higgs boson (NHB) penguins, we evaluate some possible observables associated with these processes like the invariant mass spectrum (IMS), lepton pair forward-backward asymmetry (FBA), lepton polarization asymmetries etc. In this model the contributions from Wilson coefficients , among new contributions, are dominant. Our results show that the NHB effects are sensitive to the FBA, , and of decay, which are expected to be measured in B factories, the deviation of in can reach 0.1 from SM, which could be seen in B factories, and the average of the normal polarization can reach several percent for and it is 0.05 or so for , which could be measured in the future super B factories and provide useful information to probe new physics and discriminate different models.Received: 30 October 2004, Published online: 9 March 2005     

Implications of $B \to \rho \gamma$ measurements in the standard model and supersymmetric theories

We study the implications of the recently improved upper limits on the branching ratios for the decays , expressed as . We work out the constraints that the current bound on implies on the parameters of the quark mixing matrix in the standard model (SM). Using the present profile of the unitarity triangle, we predict this ratio to lie in the range (at 95% C.L.), with the central value . We also work out the correlations involving , the isospin-violating ratio , and the direct CP-violating asymmetry in decays in the SM, in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the SM (MSSM), and in an extension of the MSSM involving an additional flavor-changing structure in transitions. Received: 19 August 2002 / Published online: 18 October 2002 RID="a" ID="a" e-mail: ali@mail.desy.de RID="b" ID="b" e-mail: lunghi@mail.desy.de     

Renormalization-group improved calculation of the $B\to X_s\gamma$ branching ratio

Using results on soft-collinear factorization for inclusive B-meson decay distributions, a systematic study of the partial decay rate with a cut on photon energy is performed. For values of E ₀ below about 1.9 GeV, the rate can be calculated without reference to shape functions using a multi-scale operator product expansion (MSOPE). The transition from the shape-function region to the MSOPE region is studied analytically. The resulting prediction for the branching ratio depends on three large scales: m _b , , and . Logarithms associated with these scales are resummed at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic order. While power corrections in turn out to be small, the sensitivity to the scale GeV (for GeV) introduces significant perturbative uncertainties, which so far have been ignored. The new theoretical prediction for the branching ratio with GeV is , where the first error is an estimate of perturbative uncertainties and the second one reflects uncertainties in input parameters. With this cut of all events are contained. When this fraction is combined with the previously best prediction for the total decay rate, one obtains , with a somewhat less conservative estimate of parametric uncertainties. The implications of larger theory uncertainties for new physics searches are briefly explored with the example of the type-II two-Higgs-doublet model, for which the lower bound on the charged-Higgs mass is reduced compared with previous estimates to approximately 200 GeV at 95% confidence level.Received: 18 September 2004, Revised: 18 January 2005, Published online: 21 February 2005     

An eikonal line-integral model and factorization in QCD

We study an approximation to perturbative QCD in which all quarks (active and spectator) move along eikonal lines. These eikonal lines are described by matrix operatorsU defined by time-ordered and path-ordered integrals. All known examples of Bloch-Nordsieck cancellations follow simply from the unitary properties ofU. In particular, when the eikonal lines are space-like, the time-ordering can be omitted and the unitarity ofU is evident. In this model, it is possible to examine rather explicitly the soft and very-soft gluons whose effects must cancel if factorization is hold (to leading twist). We can show such cancellation if there is a smooth continuation from space-like eikonal lines to time-like ones. We give some examples relevant to this conjecture, but we are unable to prove it in general.     

QCD sum rules analysis of the rare B_{c}\rightarrow X\nu\bar{\nu} decays

Taking into account the gluon correction contributions to the correlation function, the form factors relevant to the rare decays are calculated in the framework of the three-point QCD sum rules, where X stands for axial vector particle, AV(D _s1), and vector particles, V(D ^*,D _s ^*). The total decay width as well as the branching ratio of these decays are evaluated using the q ² dependent expressions of the form factors. A comparison of our results with the predictions of the relativistic constituent quark model is presented.