Large Direct CP Violation in B -> phi phi Xs Decays

Abstract

We present a novel method to search for a new CP-violating phase in b -> ss~ss~s transition using B -> phi phi Xs decays, where Xs represents a final state with a specific strange flavor such as K+/-, K*+/-, or K+/-pi-/+. Direct CP violation can be enhanced due to an interference between an amplitude beyond the standard model (SM) and the SM decay amplitude through the eta_c resonance. We find that the CP asymmetry can be as large as 0.4 within the present experimental bounds on the b -> ss~s transition. These decays provide a very clean experimental signature and the background is expected to be small in particular at e+e- B factories. A simulation study for the B+/- -> phi phi K+/- decay shows that the statistical significance of CP violation can exceed 5 standard deviations with 10^9 B mesons.