Polarization Study in B Decays to Vector Final States

Abstract

The small longitudinal polarization fractions (50%) of $B \to \phi K^*$ measured by B factories contradict with the naive theoretical counting rules. We review the current theoretical status of the $B\to VV$ decay studies and calculate many of them in the perturbative QCD factorization approach based on $k_T$ factorization. We find that the penguin annihilation and non-factorizable emission diagrams can enhance the transverse polarization fractions. The PQCD results agree with experiments for the measured $B\to \phi K^*$, $B\to \rho K^*$ and $B\to \rho \rho$ channels, and we also predict new results (some different from other approaches) for those not yet measured channels.