CP-violating asymmetry in B decays to 3 pseudoscalar mesons

The measurement of CP asymmetries in charged B meson decays might provide the first demonstration of CP violation outside the K system. Among the usual three CP-odd phases $\alpha$, $\beta$ and $\gamma$, the phase $\gamma$ seems to be the most difficult to explore experimentally. In this talk I would like to report on a recent analysis of the CP asymmetry in the partial widths for the non-leptonic decays $B^{\pm} \to M {\bar M} \pi^{\pm}$ ($M = \pi^+, K ^+, \pi^0, \eta$), which results from the interference of the non-resonant decay amplitude with the resonant amplitude for $B^{\pm} \to \chi_{c0} \pi^{\pm}$ followed by the decay $\chi_{c0} \to M {\bar M}$. The CP violating phase $\gamma$ can be extracted from the measured asymmetry. We find that the partial width asymmetry for $B^\pm \to \pi^+ \pi^- \pi^\pm$ is about $0.33~\sin \gamma$, and about $0.45~ \sin \gamma$ for $B^\pm \to K^+ K^-\pi^\pm$, while it is somewhat smaller for $B^\pm \to \pi^0 \pi^0 \pi^\pm$ and $B^\pm \to \eta \eta \pi^\pm$.