A Systematic Analysis of the Exclusive B -> K^* l^+ l^- Decay

Abstract

A model-independent analysis for the exclusive, rare B -> K^* l^+ l^- decay is presented. Systematically studied are the experimentally measured quantities, such as, branching ratio, forward-backward asymmetry, longitudinal polarization of the final leptons, and the ratio ${\Gamma }_L/{\Gamma }_T$ of the decay widths when $K^{\ast }$ meson is longitudinally and transversally polarized. The dependence of the asymmetry parameter $\alpha =2{\Gamma }_L/{\Gamma }_T-1$ on the new Wilson coefficients is also studied in detail. It is found that the afore-mentioned physical observables are quite sensitive to the new Wilson coefficients. Therefore, once we have the experimental data with high statistics and a deviation from the Standard Model, we can interpret the source of such discrepancy.

Comments: To be published in PRD (2000)