Penguin decays of B mesons

Abstract

Penguin, or loop, decays of B mesons induce effective flavor-changing neutral currents, which are forbidden at tree level in the Standard Model. These decays give special insight into the CKM matrix and are sensitive to non-standard model effects. In this review, we give a historical and theoretical introduction to penguins and a description of the various types of penguin processes: electromagnetic, electroweak, and gluonic. We review the experimental searches for penguin decays, including the measurements of the electromagnetic penguins b -> s gamma and B -> K* gamma and gluonic penguins B -> K pi, B+ -> omega K+ and B -> eta' K, and their implications for the Standard Model and New Physics. We conclude by exploring the future prospects for penguin physics.

49 pages, LATEX, 30 embedded figures, submitted to Annual Reviews of Nuclear and Particle Science

References in corpus (22)

• Mixing and Decay Constants of Pseudoscalar Mesons
• An analysis of two-body non-leptonic B decays involving light mesons in the standard model
• Lattice-Constrained Parametrizations of Form Factors for Semileptonic and Rare Radiative B Decays
• Enhanced $b\to sg$ Decay, Inclusive ${\eta }^{\prime }$ Production, and the Gluon Anomaly
• Final State Interactions and New Physics in B -> pi K Decays
• Two-Body B Meson Decays to $\eta$ and ${\eta }^{{}^{\prime }}$ -- Observation of $B\to \eta${'}K$
• Observation of Exclusive Two-Body B Decays to Kaons and Pions
• Flavor-Specific Inclusive B Decays to Charm
• Observation of $B^{+}\to \omega K^{+}$ and Search for Related $B$ Decay Modes
• QCD corrections to b -> s gamma gamma induced decays: B -> X_s gamma gamma and B_s -> gamma gamma
• Quasi-Inclusive and Exclusive decays of $B$ to ${\eta }^{\prime }$
• Inclusive Decay Rate for $B\to X_d+\gamma$ in Next-to-Leading Logarithmic Order and CP Asymmetry in the Standard Model
• Charming-penguin enhanced B decays
• The Gluonic Decay of the $b$--Quark and tne ${\eta }^{\prime }$--Meson
• Search for Inclusive $b\to sl^{+]l^{-}$
• B Decays to Charmless VP Final States
• QCD Corrections to $b\to s\gamma \gamma$ and Exclusive $B_s\to \gamma \gamma$ Decay
• The Color-Octet intrinsic charm in ${\eta }^{\prime }$ and $B\to {\eta }^{\prime }X$ decays
• Charmless B decays to eta' and eta
• A Critical Study of B Decays to Light Pseudoscalar
• CP Violation in Quasi-inclusive $B\to K^{(\ast )}X$ Decays
• The Btev Program

Cited by in corpus (19)

• Charmless Hadronic Two-body Decays of B_u and B_d Mesons
• Present Status of Inclusive Rare B Decays
• Possible Molecular Structure of the Newly Observed Y(4260)
• Study of Charmless Hadronic B Meson Decays to Pseudoscalar-Vector Final States
• Radiative and Electroweak Penguin Decays of B Mesons
• The Y(4260) as an omega chi_{c1} molecular state
• Looking for Novel CP-Violating Effects in B->K^*l^+l^-
• New Information on B Decays to Charmless VP Final States
• Charmless two body hadronic decays of ${\Lambda }_b$ baryon
• Rare radiative B decays to orbitally excited K mesons
• Inclusive Rare B Decays
• Hadronic B decays: Supersymmetric enhancement and a simple spectator model
• Search for the Radiative Penguin Decays B+ -> rho+ gamma, B0 -> rho0 gamma, and B0 -> omega gamma
• Charmless hadronic B decays and the recent CLEO data
• The sensitivity of the zero position of the forward--backward asymmetry to new physics effects in the B -> K^\ast μ^+ μ^- decay
• Search for the Radiative Decays B -> rho gamma and B0 -> omega gamma
• Rare radiative B decay to the orbitally excited K_2^*(1430) meson
• How Penguins Started to Fly
• Radiative Penguin Decays of B Mesons: Measurements of B -> K* gamma, B -> K2*(1430) gamma, and Search for B0 -> phi gamma