A Systematic Analysis of the Exclusive B -> K^* l^+ l^- Decay

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive, model-independent analysis of the rare B -> K* l+ l- decay, examining various observables and their sensitivity to potential new physics beyond the Standard Model.

Contribution

It systematically studies the dependence of decay observables on new Wilson coefficients, highlighting their potential to reveal physics beyond the Standard Model.

Findings

Physical observables are highly sensitive to new Wilson coefficients.

High-statistics experimental data can help identify deviations from the Standard Model.

The analysis offers a framework for interpreting potential new physics signals.

Abstract

A model-independent analysis for the exclusive, rare B -> K^* l^+ l^- decay is presented. Systematically studied are the experimentally measured quantities, such as, branching ratio, forward-backward asymmetry, longitudinal polarization of the final leptons, and the ratio $\Gamma_L/\Gamma_T$ of the decay widths when $K^\ast$ meson is longitudinally and transversally polarized. The dependence of the asymmetry parameter $\alpha = 2 \Gamma_L/\Gamma_T -1$ on the new Wilson coefficients is also studied in detail. It is found that the afore-mentioned physical observables are quite sensitive to the new Wilson coefficients. Therefore, once we have the experimental data with high statistics and a deviation from the Standard Model, we can interpret the source of such discrepancy.