Measurement of Polarization and Triple-Product Correlations in B -> phi K^* Decays

TL;DR

This paper measures decay amplitudes and triple-product correlations in B -> phi K^* decays, providing insights into polarization states and T-violation, based on data from the Belle detector at KEKB.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed measurement of decay amplitudes and T-violating asymmetries in B -> phi K^* decays using angular analysis.

Findings

Decay amplitudes for helicity states are quantified.

Triple-product asymmetries are consistent with no T-violation.

Results improve understanding of polarization in B decays.

Abstract

We present a measurement of the decay amplitudes and triple-product correlations in B -> phi K^* decays based on 140 fb^-1 of data recorded at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB e^+ e^- storage ring. The decay amplitudes for the different phi K^* helicity states are measured from the angular distributions of final state particles in the transversity basis. The longitudinal and transverse complex amplitude moduli and angles are |A_0|^2 = 0.51 +- 0.06 +- 0.04, |A_perp|^2 = 0.24 +- 0.06 +- 0.03, arg(A_parallel) = -2.21 +- 0.22 +- 0.05 rad, and arg(A_perp) = 0.72 +- 0.21 +- 0.06 rad. The T-violating asymmetries through triple-product correlations are measured to be consistent with zero.