Baryon helicity in B decay

Abstract

The unexpectedly large transverse polarization measured in the B-to-phi K* decay poses the question whether it is accounted for as a strong interaction effect or possibly points to a hidden nonstandard weak interaction. We extend here the perturbative argument to the helicity structure of the two-body baryonic decay and discuss qualitatively on how the baryonic B decay modes might help us in understanding the issue raised by the B-to-VV decays. We find among others that the helicity +1/2 amplitude dominates in the leading order in the B (b-bar q) decay and that the dominant amplitude is sensitive to the right-handed penguin interaction.