Measurement of the decays B-->phi K and B-->phi K^*

Abstract

We have observed the decays B-->phi K and phi K^* in a sample of over 45 million B mesons collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II collider. The measured branching fractions are BF(B^+ --> phi K^+) = (7.7^{+1.6}_{-1.4}+/- 0.8) x 10^{-6}, BF(B^0 --> phi K^0) = (8.1^{+3.1}_{-2.5}+/- 0.8) x 10^{-6}, BF(B^+ --> phi K^{*+}) = (9.7^{+4.2}_{-3.4}+/- 1.7) x 10^{-6}, and BF(B^0 --> phi K^{*0}) = (8.6^{+2.8}_{-2.4}+/- 1.1) x 10^{-6}. We also report the upper limit BF(B^+ --> phi pi^+) < 1.4 x 10^{-6}$ (90% CL).