Related papers: Difficulties in Obtaining Weak Phases from $b\to d…

Electromagnetic radiative penguin decays of the B meson were studied with the BaBar detector at SLAC's PEP-II asymmetric-energy B Factory. Branching fractions and isospin asymmetry of the decay B -> K* gamma, branching fractions of B ->…

We first review the methods for determining gamma from B->D K decays that appeared after CKM 2008. We then discuss the theoretical errors in gamma extraction. The errors due to neglected D-Dbar and B_{d,s}-Bbar_{d,s} mixing can be avoided…

We present a preliminary measurement of the branching fraction of the exclusive penguin decay B^0 -> K^*0 gamma using (8.6+/-0.3) x 10^6 B-anti-B decays BF(B^0 -> K^*0 gamma) = (5.2+/-0.82 (stat.) +/- 0.47 (sys.)) x 10^-5. In addition we…

In the absence of the QCD penguin contributions a measurement of the time-dependent asymmetry in the decay $B^0(t)\to \pi^+\pi^-$ gives directly the weak angle $\alpha$. Several bounds have been proposed in the literature on the magnitude…

Recent rare $B \to PP$, $PV$ decay data suggest that factorization holds well if, contrary to current fits, one has $\cos\gamma < 0$ where $\gamma \equiv {\rm arg}(V_{ub}^*)$. We update previous results with light cone sum rule form…

Radiative penguin decays provide an indirect probe for physics beyond the Standard Model and contribute to the determination of the CKM matrix elements. Copious quantities of B mesons produced at the B-Factories permit precision…

We note that the two body nonleptonic pure tree decays $B_c^\pm \to D_s^\pm D^0(\bar D^0)$ and the corresponding vector-vector modes $B_c^\pm \to D_s^{* \pm} D^{*0}(\bar D^{* 0}) $ are well suited to extract the weak phase $\gamma$ of the…

Motivated by recent measurements, we investigate $B\to \pi \pi, K \pi$ decay modes in the framework of QCD improved factorization, which was recently proposed by Beneke $et al$. We find that all the measured branching ratios are well…

We present a method of determining weak phase \gamma in the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix from decays B->\eta K, \eta' K$ alone. Given a large ratio between color-suppressed and color-allowed tree diagrams extracted from global \pi\pi(K)…

An improved flavor SU(3) method is presented for determining the weak angle $\gamma$ of the unitarity triangle using decay rates for $B^+\to K\pi, B^+\to K^+\bar K^0$ and $B^+\to \pi^+\eta$ (or $B^0\to K\pi$ and $B_s\to K \pi$), their…

We present the measurement, performed by the BABAR Collaboration, of the weak phase alpha from the time dependent CP asymmetries in B0--> a_1(1260)+- pi-+ decays. The model error induced by penguin contributions to the B0 --> a_1(1260)+-…

We derive constraints for $B\to VV$ modes ($V= vector meson) that allow aquantitative assessment of the contributions from electroweak penguins (EWP) and/or new physics. Interplay of direct CP with oscillation studies then leads to the…

In the recent literature, constraints on the CKM angle $\gamma$ arising from the branching ratios for $B^\pm\to\pi^\pm K$ and $B_d\to\pi^\mp K^\pm$ decays received a lot of attention. An important theoretical limitation of the accuracy of…

The B^0_s -> J/psi K_S decay has recently been observed by the CDF collaboration and will be of interest for the LHCb experiment. It is the U-spin partner of the golden B^0_d -> J/psi K_S channel and offers a determination of the angle…

We report on recent progress in studying two aspects of $B$ physics, in which penguin amplitudes play an important role: (1) Bounds on penguin pollution in $B^0(t) \to \pi^+\pi^-$ constraining CKM parameters, and a lower bound on $B^0 \to…

Quasi two-body decays B^0(t)-> a_1^{+-}(1260) pi^{-+} identified by four charged pions determine a phase alpha_eff, which is equal to the weak phase alpha in the limit of vanishing penguin amplitudes. Applying flavor SU(3) to these decays…

Theoretical errors in the extraction of alpha from B -> pi^+ pi^-, rho^+ rho^-, rho pi decays are usually given in terms of upper bounds on alpha_eff-alpha obtained from isospin or from SU(3) relations, where alpha_eff is measured through…

Recently, it was proposed to use measurements of Bd(t) -> D(*)+ D(*)- and Bd -> Ds(*)+ D(*)- decays to measure the CP phase gamma. In this paper, we present the extraction of gamma using this method. We find that gamma is favored to lie in…

Electroweak penguin (EWP) amplitudes are studied model-independently in $B$ meson decays to charmless final states consisting of a vector meson ($V$) and a pseudoscalar meson ($P$). A set of SU(3) relations is derived between EWP…

We propose a parametrization for two-body nonleptonic $B$ meson decays, in which the various topologies of amplitudes are counted in terms of powers of the Wolfenstein parameter $\lambda\sim 0.22$. The weak phases and the amplitudes are…