Flavor-singlet B-decay amplitudes in QCD factorization Original Research Article

Exclusive hadronic B-meson decays into two-body final states consisting of a light pseudoscalar or vector meson along with an η or η′ meson are of great phenomenological interest. Their theoretical analysis involves decay mechanisms that are unique to flavor-singlet states, such as their coupling to gluons or their “intrinsic charm” content. These issues are studied systematically in the context of QCD factorization and the heavy-quark expansion. Theory can account for the experimental data on the B→K(∗)η(′) branching fractions, albeit within large uncertainties.