Inelastic Final State Interactions in $B \to PP$ Decays

Abstract

A method parametrizing all inelastic final state interactions (FSI) in $B\to PP$ decays is presented ($P$ - pseudoscalar meson). The method explicitly shows how rescattering leads to the replacement of the short-distance amplitudes with the effective quark diagram amplitudes, and how it affects the extraction of the unitarity triangle angle $\gamma $ from the data. It is furthermore pointed out that the size of FSI effects cannot be determined from $B^0_d \to K^+ K^-$ decays in a satisfactory way. The case of SU(3)-violating FSI is also discussed. When fits to the branching ratios of all $B \to PP$ decays are performed with all inelastic FSI included, the extracted value of $ \gamma $ is shifted down by some $20^o-30^o$ when compared to the no-FSI analyses, and becomes consistent with the Standard Model value of $ 65^o \pm 7^o$.