Probing right-handed currents in B -> K* l+ l- transitions

Abstract

We discuss a possibility to probe right-handed weak hadronic currents in rare semileptonic b -> s transitions. It is shown that within models involving right-handed as well as left-handed quark currents (LR models) one can expect a strong enhancement of the right-handed K* production in B -> K* l+ l- decays compared with models including only left-handed quark currents (SM, MSSM). Hence an experimental study of the transverse asymmetry of the produced K* mesons provides a clear test of the presence of the right-handed quark currents and a possibiltity to discriminate between the MSSM and LR extentions of the SM. At the same time, MSSM and LR models are found to yield qualitatively the same type of deviations from the SM in the forward-backward and the longitudinal lepton polarization asymmetries.