Right-Handed New Physics Remains Strangely Beautiful

Current data on CP violation in B_d -> eta' K_S and B_d -> phi K_S, taken literally, suggest new physics contributions in b -> s transitions. Despite a claim to the contrary, we point out that right-handed operators with a single weak phase can account for both deviations thanks to the two-fold ambiguity in the extraction of the weak phase from the corresponding CP-asymmetry. This observation is welcome since large mixing in the right-handed sector is favored by many GUT models and frameworks which address the flavor puzzle. There are also interesting correlations with the B_s system which provide a way to test this scenario in the near future.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures; published version: added 1 reference and 1 clarificatio

Flavor SU(3) analysis of charmless B meson decays to two pseudoscalar mesons

Global fits to charmless B --> PP decays in the framework of flavor SU(3) symmetry are updated and improved without reference to the \sin2\beta measured from the charmonium decay modes. Fit results directly constrain the (\bar\rho,\bar\eta) vertex of the unitarity triangle, and are used to predict the branching ratios and CP asymmetries of all decay modes, including those of the B_s system. Different schemes of SU(3) breaking in decay amplitude sizes are analyzed. The major breaking effect between strangeness-conserving and strangeness-changing decays can be accounted for by including a ratio of decay constants in tree and color-suppressed amplitudes. The possibility of having a new physics contribution to K \pi decays is also examined from the data fitting point of view.Comment: 22 pages and 2 figures; some comments and references added; more references added, version to appear in journa

The 2004 UTfit Collaboration Report on the Status of the Unitarity Triangle in the Standard Model

Using the latest determinations of several theoretical and experimental parameters, we update the Unitarity Triangle analysis in the Standard Model. The basic experimental constraints come from the measurements of |V_ub/V_cb|, Delta M_d, the lower limit on Delta M_s, epsilon_k, and the measurement of the phase of the B_d - anti B_d mixing amplitude through the time-dependent CP asymmetry in B^0 to J/psi K^0 decays. In addition, we consider the direct determination of alpha, gamma, 2 beta + gamma and cos(2 beta) from the measurements of new CP-violating quantities, recently performed at the B factories. We also discuss the opportunities offered by improving the precision of the various physical quantities entering in the determination of the Unitarity Triangle parameters. The results and the plots presented in this paper can also be found at http://www.utfit.org, where they are continuously updated with the newest experimental and theoretical results.Comment: 32 pages, 17 figures. High resolution figures and updates can be found at http://www.utfit.org v2: misprints correcte

Search for X(3872) in gamma gamma Fusion and ISR at CLEO

We report on a search for the X(3872) state using 15.1 fb^{-1} of e+ e- annihilation data taken with the CLEO III detector in the sqrt{s} = 9.46-11.30 GeV region. Separate searches for the production of X(3872) in untagged gamma gamma fusion and e+ e- annihilation following initial state radiation are made by taking advantage of the unique correlation of J/psi -> l+ l- in X(3872) decay into J/psi pi+ pi-. No signals are observed in either case, and 90% confidence upper limits are established as (2J+1)Gamma_{gammagamma}(X(3872))B(X -> J/psi pi+ pi-) J/psi pi+ pi-) < 8.3 eV.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 1st Meeting of the APS Topical Group on Hadronic Physics, Fermilab, Oct. 24-26, 200

Supersymmetric Contributions to Bs->K+K-

Inspired by the existing calculation of B->piK decays in supersymmetry (SUSY), we evaluate the dominant SUSY contributions to Bs->K+K-. We show that the observables of this process can be significantly modified in the presence of SUSY. In particular, the branching ratio can be increased considerably compared to the prediction of the standard model (SM). The effect is even more dramatic for the CP-violating asymmetries A_dir and A_mix. These asymmetries, expected to be small in the SM (A_dir is predicted to take only positive values), change drastically with SUSY contributions. The measurement of these observables can therefore be used to detect the presence of physics beyond the SM, and put constraints on its parameters.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures. This new version contains one added reference and some minor style change