Search for rare quark-annihilation decays, B --> Ds(*) Phi

We report on searches for B- --> Ds- Phi and B- --> Ds*- Phi. In the context of the Standard Model, these decays are expected to be highly suppressed since they proceed through annihilation of the b and u-bar quarks in the B- meson. Our results are based on 234 million Upsilon(4S) --> B Bbar decays collected with the BABAR detector at SLAC. We find no evidence for these decays, and we set Bayesian 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching fractions BF(B- --> Ds- Phi) Ds*- Phi)<1.2x10^(-5). These results are consistent with Standard Model expectations.Comment: 8 pages, 3 postscript figues, submitted to Phys. Rev. D (Rapid Communications

Search for strange-pentaquark production in e(+)e(-) annihilation at root s=10.58 GeV

We search for strange-pentaquark states that have been previously reported by other experiments-the Theta(1540)(+), Xi(5)(1860)(--), and Xi(5)(1860)(0)-in 123 fb(-1) of data recorded with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e(+)e(-) storage ring. We find no evidence for these states and set 95% confidence level upper limits on the number of Theta(1540)(+) and Xi(5)(1860)(--) pentaquarks produced per e(+)e(-) annihilation into q (q) over bar and per Upsilon(4S) decay. For q (q) over bar events the Theta(1540)(+) [Xi(5)(1860)(--)] limit is about 8 [4] times lower than the rates measured for ordinary baryons of similar mass

Measurement of branching fractions and resonance contributions for B-0 ->(D)over-bar(0)K(+)pi(-) and search for B-0 ->(DK+)-K-0 pi(-) decays

Using 226x10(6) Upsilon(4S)-> B (B) over bar events collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e(+)e(-) storage ring at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, we measure the branching fraction for B-0->(D) over bar (0)K(+)pi(-), excluding B-0-> D*-K+, to be B(B-0->(0)K(+)pi(-))=(88 +/- 15 +/- 9)x10(-6). We observe B-0->(D) over bar K-0(*)(892)(0) and B-0-> D-2(*)(2460)K--(+) contributions. The ratio of branching fractions B(B-0-> D*-K+)/B(B-0-> D(*-)pi(+))=(7.76 +/- 0.34 +/- 0.29)% is measured separately. The branching fraction for the suppressed mode B-0-> D(0)K(+)pi(-) is B(B-0-> D(0)K(+)pi(-))< 19x10(-6) at the 90% confidence level

Search for radiative penguin decays B+->rho(+)gamma, B-0 ->rho(0)gamma, and B-0 ->omega gamma

A search for the decays B-->rho(770)gamma and B-0-->omega(782)gamma is performed on a sample of 211x10(6) Y(4S)-->B (B) over bar events collected by the BABAR detector at the SLAC PEP-II asymmetric-energy e(+)e(-) storage ring. No evidence for the decays is seen. We set the following limits on the individual branching fractions: B(B+-->rho(+)gamma)rho(0)gamma)omegagamma)(rho/omega)gamma]<1.2x10(-6), from which we determine a constraint on the ratio of Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements |V-td|/|V-ts|