Observation and Polarization Measurements of B±→ϕK±1 and B±→ϕK*±2

Abstract

With the full BABAR data sample of 465 × 10 6 B ¯¯¯ B pairs, we observe the decays B ± → φ K 1 ( 1270 ) ± and B ± → φ K ∗ 2 ( 1430 ) ± . We measure the branching fractions ( 6.1 ± 1.6 ± 1.1 ) × 10 − 6 and ( 8.4 ± 1.8 ± 1.0 ) × 10 − 6 and the fractions of longitudinal polarization 0.46 + 0.12 + 0.06 − 0.13 − 0.07 and 0.80 + 0.09 − 0.10 ± 0.03 , respectively. We also report on the B ± → φ K ∗ 0 ( 1430 ) ± decay branching fraction of ( 7.0 ± 1.3 ± 0.9 ) × 10 − 6 and several parameters sensitive to C P violation and interference in the above three decays. Upper limits are placed on the B ± decay rates to final states with φ and K 1 ( 1400 ) ± , K ∗ ( 1410 ) ± , K 2 ( 1770 ) ± , or K 2 ( 1820 ) ± . Understanding the observed polarization pattern requires amplitude contributions from an uncertain source.