CHARMLESS 3-BODY B DECAYS: RESONANT AND NONRESONANT CONTRIBUTIONS

Abstract

Charmless 3-body decays of B mesons are studied using a simple model based on the framework of the factorization approach. We have identified a large source of the nonresonant signal in the matrix elements of scalar densities, e.g. [Formula: see text]. This explains the dominance of the nonresonant background in B → KKK decays, the sizable nonresonant fraction of order (35 ~ 40)% in K−π+π− and [Formula: see text] modes and the smallness of nonresonant rates in B → πππ decays. We have computed the resonant and nonresonant contributions to charmless 3-body decays and determined the rates for the quasi-two-body decays B → VP and B → SP. Time-dependent CP asymmetries sin 2β eff and ACP in K+K−KS, KSKSKS, KSπ+π− and KSπ0π0 modes are estimated.