Updated Analysis of Some Two-body Charmless B Decays

New data from the BaBar, Belle, and CLEO Collaborations on B decays to two-body charmless final states are analyzed, with the following consequences: (1) The penguin amplitude which dominates the decay B+ → π+K∗0 has a magnitude similar to that dominating B+ → π+K0. (2) The decay B+ → π+η, a good candidate for observing direct CP violation, should be detectable at present levels of sensitivity. (3) The decays B+ → η′K+ and B+ → ηK∗+ are sufficiently similar in rate to the corresponding decays B0 → η′K0 and B0 → ηK∗0, respectively, that one cannot yet infer the need for “tree” amplitudes t′ contributing to the B+ but not the B0 decays. Statistical requirements for observing this and other examples of tree-penguin interference are given. (4) Whereas the B+ → η′K+ and B0 → η′K0 rates cannot be accounted for by the penguin amplitude p′ alone but require an additional flavor-singlet penguin contribution s′, no such flavor-singlet penguin contribution is yet called for in the decays B+ → ηK∗+ or B0 → ηK∗0. Predictions for the rates for B+ → η′K∗+ and B0 → η′K∗0 are given which would allow one to gauge the importance of these flavor-singlet penguin amplitudes. e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected]