Revisiting $K\pi$ puzzle in the pQCD factorization approach

TL;DR

This paper recalculates B to K pi decay rates and CP violations using NLO pQCD, achieving better agreement with experimental data by including various quantum corrections.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive NLO pQCD analysis of B to K pi decays, improving theoretical predictions and resolving the K pi puzzle.

Findings

NLO contributions enhance branching ratios by ~15%.

Predictions for direct CP asymmetries align with experimental data.

NLO effects significantly improve theoretical accuracy.

Abstract

In this paper, we calculated the branching ratios and direct CP violation of the four $B\to K\pi$ decays with the inclusion of all currently known next-to-leading order (NLO) contributions by employing the perturbative QCD (pQCD) factorization approach. We found that (a) Besides the 10% enhancement from the NLO vertex corrections, the quark-loops and magnetic penguins, the NLO contributions to the form factors can provide an additional $\sim 15%$ enhancement to the branching ratios, and lead to a very good agreement with the data; (b) The NLO pQCD predictions are $\acp^{dir}(B^0\to K^+\pi^-)=(-6.5\pm 3.1)%$ and $\acp^{dir}(B^+\to K^+ \pi^0)=(2.2\pm 2.0)%$, become well consistent with the data due to the inclusion of the NLO contributions.