Related papers: Large electroweak penguins in B --> pi pi and B --…
The $B\to\pi\pi,\pi K$ system offers a powerful laboratory to probe strong and weak interactions. Using the isospin symmetry, we determine hadronic $B\to\pi\pi$ parameters from data where new measurements of direct CP violation in…
We perform a combined analysis of $B \to \pi \pi$ and $B \to \pi K$ decays with the current experimental data. Assuming SU(3) flavor symmetry and no new physics contributions to the topological amplitudes, we demonstrate that the…
Recent experiments suggest that certain B -> pi K branching ratios are inconsistent with the standard model expectations. We show that a flavor-changing Z' provides a solution to the problem. Electroweak penguin amplitudes are enhanced by…
Using the $SU(3)$ flavour symmetry of strong interactions, we propose strategies for extracting both the CKM-angle $\gamma$ and the $\bar b\to\bar uu\bar s$ tree-level amplitude $T'$. We present also an approximate approach using the…
For about twenty years, $B\to\pi K$ decays are in the focus of $B$-decay studies. We show that a correlation between the CP asymmetries of $B^0_d\to\pi^0K_{\rm S}$ reveals a tension with the Standard Model. Should it be due to New Physics,…
We study the effects of electroweak penguin (EWP) amplitudes in $B$ meson decays into two charmless pseudoscalars in the approximation of retaining only the dominant EWP operators $Q_9$ and $Q_{10}$. Using flavor SU(3) symmetry, we derive a…
The Standard-Model interpretation of the ratios of charged and neutral B-> pi K rates, R_c and R_n, respectively, points towards a puzzling picture. Since these observables are affected significantly by colour-allowed electroweak (EW)…
We summarize a recent strategy for a global analysis of the B -> pi pi, pi K systems and rare decays. We find that the present B -> pi pi and B -> pi K data cannot be simultaneously described in the Standard Model. In a simple extension in…
Recently, we have seen interesting progress in the exploration of CP violation in B^0_d -> pi^+ pi^-: the measurements of mixing-induced CP violation by the BaBar and Belle collaborations are now in good agreement with each other, whereas…
We discuss the correlations of charming penguin contributions to $B\to\pi\pi$, $\pi K$ and KK using approximate flavor SU(3) symmetry. Strong constraints are found from the direct CP asymmetries especially in $\pi K$ modes. We make a global…
The branching ratios and CP asymmetries of $B\to \pi\pi$ decays measured in B factory experiments indicate a large ratio of color-suppressed ($C$) to color-allowed ($T$) tree contributions and a large relative phase between the tree and…
Major new experimental efforts on detecting CP violation in $B$ decays will very soon go on the air. Recent developments suggest that final state interaction phases in exclusive decays of $B$ are unlikely to be small indicating the…
Some discrepancies between theory and experiment in the B -> pi K decays suggest the possibility of a new physics contribution with the structure of an electroweak penguin amplitude. If such a scenario is realised in nature, the branching…
It is argued that, in the presence of soft final-state interactions, the diagrammatic amplitude approach adopted in many analyses of hadronic B decays into light mesons can be misleading when used to deduce the unimportance of certain decay…
The present B -> pi K data is studied in the context of the standard model (SM) and with new physics (NP). We confirm that the SM has difficulties explaining the B -> pi K measurements. By adopting an effective-lagrangian parametrization of…
Motivated by the recent experimental data, we have revisited the $B\to \pi K,\pi \pi$ decays in the framework of QCD factorization, with inclusion of the important strong penguin corrections of order $\alpha_s^2$ induced by $b\to D g^\ast…
In charmless nonleptonic B decays to \pi\pi or \rho\rho, the "color allowed" and "color suppressed" tree amplitudes can be studied in a systematic expansion in \alphas(mb) and \Lambda/mb. At leading order in this expansion their relative…
Exploring correlations between the CP asymmetries of $B^0_d\to\pi^0K_{\rm S}$ following from an isospin relation, we uncover new tensions with the Standard Model in data for neutral $B\to\pi K$ decays. Should this intriguing picture…
A new experimental analysis of $B\to K\pi$ decays provides finite experimental values for the contributions from interference terms between the dominant penguin amplitude and the color-favored and color-suppressed tree amplitudes. These…
Based on the latest experimental data of $B \to \pi\pi$ and $\pi K$ modes, a model-independent analytical analysis is presented. The CP-averaged branching ratio difference $\Delta R = R_c - R_n$ in $B\to \pi K$ decays with $R_c =…