Eur. Phys. J. C (2015) 75: 340
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-015-3535-1

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

Weak annihilation and new physics in charmless decays

¹ Technische Universität München, Institute for Advanced Study, Lichtenbergstraße 2a, 85748, Garching, Germany
² Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3BX, UK
³ Technische Universität München, Excellence Cluster Universe, Boltzmannstraße 2, 85748, Garching, Germany

^* e-mail: mgorbahn@liv.ac.uk

Received: 6 October 2014
Accepted: 23 June 2015
Published online: 22 July 2015

Abstract

We use currently available data of nonleptonic charmless 2-body decays () that are mediated by QCD- and QED-penguin operators to study weak annihilation and new-physics effects in the framework of QCD factorization. In particular we introduce one weak-annihilation parameter for decays related by quark interchange and test this universality assumption. Within the standard model, the data supports this assumption with the only exceptions in the system, which exhibits the well-known “ puzzle”, and some tensions in . Beyond the standard model, we simultaneously determine weak-annihilation and new-physics parameters from data, employing model-independent scenarios that address the “ puzzle”, such as QED-penguins and current-current operators. We discuss also possibilities that allow further tests of our assumption once improved measurements from LHCb and Belle II become available.