Status of the B ightarrow K^*mu ^ mu ^- anomaly after Moriond 2017

The European Physical Journal C

, 77:377

First Online: 07 June 2017Received: 12 April 2017Accepted: 28 May 2017DOI: 10.1140-epjc-s10052-017-4952-0

Cite this article as: Altmannshofer, W., Niehoff, C., Stangl, P. et al. Eur. Phys. J. C 2017 77: 377. doi:10.1140-epjc-s10052-017-4952-0

Abstract

Motivated by recent results by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations on the angular distribution of the \B ightarrow K^* \mu ^+\mu ^-\ decay, we perform a state-of-the-art analysis of rare B meson decays based on the \b ightarrow s \mu \mu \ transition. Using standard estimates of hadronic uncertainties, we confirm the presence of a sizeable discrepancy between data and SM predictions. We do not find evidence for a \q^2\ or helicity dependence of the discrepancy. The data can be consistently described by new physics in the form of a four-fermion contact interaction \\bar{s} \gamma \alpha P L b\bar{\mu }\gamma ^\alpha \mu \. Assuming that the new physics affects decays with muons but not with electrons, we make predictions for a variety of theoretically clean observables sensitive to violation of lepton flavour universality.

Author: Wolfgang Altmannshofer - Christoph Niehoff - Peter Stangl - David M. Straub