Final-state polarization in B<inf>s</inf>⁰ decays

Certain B0 -> V1 V2 decays (Vi is a vector meson) can be related by flavor SU(3) symmetry to corresponding B0 -> V3 V4 decays. In this paper, we show that the final-state polarization can be predicted in the B0 decay, assuming polarization measurements of the B0 decay. This can be done within the scenario of penguin annihilation (PA), which has been suggested as an explanation of the unexpectedly large transverse polarization in B -> φK*. PA is used to estimate the breaking of flavor SU(3) symmetry in pairs of decays. Two of these for which PA makes a reasonably precise prediction of the size of SU(3) breaking are (B0 -> φφ, B0 -> φK0*) and (B0 -> φK0*,B0 -> K0*K0*). The polarization measurement in the B0 decay can be used to predict the transverse polarization in the B0 decay and will allow for testing of PA as well as the other assumptions in the analysis. © Springer-Verlag/Società Italiana di Fisica 2009.